bloghttp://beagleboard.org/blog/
2015-05-27-BeagleBone-Black-and-Android-Combine-in-Super-Cape-Attachmenthttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-05-27-BeagleBone-Black-and-Android-Combine-in-Super-Cape-Attachment/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-05-27-BeagleBone-Black-and-Android-Combine-in-Super-Cape-Attachment/<h1 dir="ltr">BeagleBone Black and Android Combine in Super Cape Attachment<br /><small style="font-size: 12px;">by Lauren Reed</small></h1>
<p dir="ltr">Makers love customizing their Android devices. And thanks to the BBBAndroid, which puts emphasis on interfacing custom hardware with Android operating systems, users now have a starting point to create their own custom Android-based devices.<br /><br /><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lywyPOxTTxoqRN8Bbng8HQr7FwAMYvgfGg0XryAVnhqWKn-D4yb3IUj9_BNx-ngHyRm6VtSilyl6TrDTx0B_vZQJ2o0JzYMbMDzDD7rE_10QU5B2EWdmGJzNN1Ay6yXPYmB-kHKwsoK5lN97" alt="http://i.imgur.com/LC7SrBB.jpg" width="323px;" height="212px;" /></p>
<p dir="ltr">“During the summer of 2013, I worked as a graduate assistant at Syracuse University. While I was there studying and assisting with classes, I was also experimenting with new ways to prototype Android systems with custom hardware,” said Andrew Henderson, creator of the BBBAndroid.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Andrew decided he wanted a system with the ability to easily interface with multiple systems. He also did not want to have to break down commercial phones and tablets in order to implement the custom Android hardware he was testing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">When he started using the BeagleBone Black, it fit the bill perfectly.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“The BBB is low cost, which is perfect for this system because I’m designing it specifically for students,” Andrew said. “I wanted them to feel comfortable paying for and interfacing with my platform.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Other aspects that factored into Andrew’s decision to use BBB were the small physical footprint and open hardware design. The USB cable that comes with BBB can be used to provide an ADB interface to the BBBAndroid system, which makes app development and deployment quick and easy. Basic LCD capes that work with systems such as Angstrom and Debian, will work with the BBBAndroid straight out of their boxes. However, in those cases it’s up to the individual to write an Android app that is compatible with BBBAndroid.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“While working with a port for TI’s Sitara™ <a href="http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/arm/sitara_arm_cortex_a_processor/sitara_arm_cortex_a8/am335x_arm_cortex_a8/getting_started.page">AM335x</a> family of processors, I discovered that introducing newer BBB operating system features would require quite a few modifications to a couple of scripts,” Andrew said. “I tinkered with things quite a bit.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Andrew emphasizes that a complete knowledge of all aspects of the BBB system is very important for developers. Interfacing SPI and I2C devices was easy thanks to the device tree overlay support in the BBB’s 3.8 operating system. Plus, BBB is very user-friendly in terms of the number of general purpose input/output pins; it has more available than other boards currently for sale.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Through trial and error, Andrew learned what he could from operating system and device-specific modifications from Rowboat Android JellyBean. Eventually he began pulling Android source code directly from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) repositories.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“The AOSP build system is pretty complex, but very well documented,” Andrew said. This is why he turned to <a href="http://amzn.to/1HLTPYz">Karim Yaghmour’s book Embedded Android</a> for help in understanding, building and customizing AOSP for BBBAndroid.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/kjtocaDLL_B-lxciLPH2BMrCUT__wNIxaEWCBNN3ysPwRNnSEYNR1ZyQPANgsbI8zFv0BkRGQzI4rZuUZNqdvS7SKRgy1YINeO4xbEPSy31UJRLmiZZpWNOiZezEUhZG0zXL9TiOh1ydXFW2" alt="http://i.imgur.com/Xx4F8k5.jpg" width="373px;" height="286px;" /></p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-ab6e533d-968b-538d-9ab2-0c778a0fb1c7">Andrew feels strongly that makers could always use more example Android apps that show off the interfacing capabilities of the BeagleBone Black’s hardware. That is why he plans to mentor a student who is working with the platform this summer during the <a href="../../gsoc">Google Summer of Code</a> program.</span></p>jkridner.wordpress.com27 May 2015 18:16:15 UTC2015-03-30-project-spotlight-machinekit-yoctohttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-03-30-project-spotlight-machinekit-yocto/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-03-30-project-spotlight-machinekit-yocto/<h1>Project Spotlight: Emmelia - Yocto powered 3D Printer prototype<br /><small style="font-size: 12px;">by Natalie Nelms</small></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;">We’ve all heard about the trend of 3D printing that’s on the rise and breaking into many different industries, from automotive to fashion, Makers have embraced 3D printing on a whole new level and many have presented their creations to the public. At least that’s what maker Robert Berger did. He demonstrated his 3D printing project, Emmelia, at the Embedded Linux Conference 2014 at the Yocto booth. Berger began the project after purchasing a 3D printer kit. <br /><img src="http://beagleboard.org/static/images/MachinekitOverYocto.png" alt="" width="600" height="450" /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;">The software included open source, which he said was quite stable, and not Linux (8-bit AVR) so he saw room for improvement and Maker innovation. The components Berger used in the device included:</p>
<ul>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Mechanics, bed, motors, thermistors, power supp.</span></li>
<li><a style="text-indent: -0.25in;" href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">Sitara-processor-powered BeagleBone Black</a></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">CRAMPS</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Five A4988 Stepper Motor Driver Black Edition</span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;">For software, Berger stated that he ran Machinekit over Yocto and not over Debian, as Machinekit runs out-of-the-box on Debian, but with the default (axis) user interface it tends to run out of memory. This gave him more RAM, which means you can print bigger/more complex designs. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;">Berger and his colleague Costas created a device which is a robust solid construction, reliable with great repeatability and low-maintenance. This allowed Emmelia to achieve high resolution when printing at high speeds. Furthermore the solid construction allowed the Makers to make use of the device in applications that require greater mechanical strength like PCB milling and drilling which gives the end user the ability to prototype a simple PCB, populate it and ”print” the case.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;">Berger also explained in detail why he went with BeagleBone Black for his project. “I used BeagleBoards from the early days on for my trainings: BeagleBoard, BeagleBoard-xM, BeagleBone and most recently, BeagleBone Black. The BeagleBone Black is truly open source and other solutions would most likely not be open or significantly increase the bill of materials.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;">The final product came with its fair share of challenges, however. Since Machinekit on Debian with the default axis interface consumes a lot of memory, he knew he would start to run out of memory with complex or big prints. This is why he decided to use a web server based solution. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;">This Maker also has future plans for this project and more. A printed circuit board rapid prototyping add-on is in the making for the 3D printing protype, but his main business is (Embedded) Linux and real-time trainings.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;">For more information on Emmelia and to stay up-to-date with Berger’s latest endeavors or register for training sessions to assemble your own 3D printer, visit: <a href="http://vlabsystems.com/">http://vlabsystems.com/</a>.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;"> </p>jkridner.wordpress.com30 Mar 2015 16:48:17 UTC2015-02-05-raspberry-pi-2http://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-02-05-raspberry-pi-2/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-02-05-raspberry-pi-2/<h1>How does BeagleBone Black compare to Raspberry Pi 2?<br /><small style="font-size: 12px;">by Jason Kridner</small></h1>
<p>As many of you might have heard, Raspberry Pi launched their next board, the Raspberry Pi 2. There have been noticeable differences in the primary processor performance from the original Pi to Pi 2. This has cause a lot of people to revisit the question of how the BeagleBone Black compares to Raspberry Pi.</p>
<p>The lineage of the two projects tells part of the story. The original BeagleBoard started with a mobile phone processor and the Pi started with a multimedia chip. The Pi 2 still seems to be very multimedia and GUI centric. The BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black (the Bones), however, started with an industrial control and communications chip, the TI Sitara AM335x. These starting points lean to suitability of each being better for certain types of tasks. The Bones are particularly suited to building small connected electronics projects with key advantages in several areas.</p>
<p>The Bones have better I/O capabilities with 7 channel 200kHz 12-bit ADC, 8 PWMs, 4 UARTs, quadrature encoder hardware and much more. This means you don't have to buy additional components to connect up many more sensors and actuators. An actuator could be something like an LED string, an LCD, a switch or a motor. For example, motor drive strength can be controlled using a PWM and the large number of PWM channels on the Bones make them better for driving motors, even if you need to add a circuit to give the drivers extra strength. Adding external PWM drivers would cost additional money and might incur overheads to update. If you care mostly about connecting electronics, then the Bones might be your best choice.</p>
<p>The Bones also have better real-time control with two 200MHz, 32-bit RISC programmable real-time units (PRUs) that are optimized for single-cycle latency to I/O pins, enabling peripheral emulation and predictable ultra-low latency hard real time control. This mix of Linux and a microcontroller on a single chip makes the Bones able to handle tasks you simply can't do with another Linux machine and external microcontroller (MCU). This is primarily due to the shared memory nature of the ARM and PRUs in the Bones. An example is BeagleLogic.net, which uses the PRUs to create a 14-channel 100MHz logic analyzer out of a Bone and is capable of streaming over a GB of samples using the ARM CPU to compress the data ahead of storing it. Another example is LEDscape, which is able to use Python scripts to drive hundreds of thousands of LEDs at costing around 50-to-1 less than what you could drive with a Pi, even with an external MCU. So, not only does adding an external MCU add cost, it just doesn't enable you to reproduce the capability.</p>
<p>The extensive I/O capabilities of the Bones have resulted in over 100 add-on cape boards to add touch displays, sensors including GPS, various network connections including WiFi and 3G, communication busses like CAN, motor control and power/battery management. These enable you to get a quick start on your hardware design and get to developing your software with a head start. While there are many add-on boards for the Pi, there just isn't enough I/O to get many interface tasks accomplished.</p>
<p>What will matter the most to many people is the fact that the Pi is still closed source hardware with limited documentation of the design and no ability to customize or manage the supply chain. This is only part of why many people consider the Bone more suited to higher educational and professional use. Quality manufacturing in the US is also frequently seen as a bonus by a developer community with many professional Linux consultants looking to help create real products. Open hardware derivatives like the Ninja Spheramid and BBP (BeagleBone 3D Printer) are just the start of new Bone-related designs popping up this year. This is possible due to the open hardware nature of the Bones and use of the Sitara devices that are available for nearly anyone to buy.</p>
<p>The Bone has been around since 2011 with approximately 20 books available for texts, reference and projects. The board boots from the mainline Linux kernel and has been used as reference in courses from Linux professionals for years. When BeagleBoard launched in 2008, we started with an ARMv7 core and became the platform most developers used to bring their product to the ARM architecture, which is why Ubuntu, Debian, Android and others have been running for years from the mainline developer repositories and have well-established references.</p>
<p>Getting started with electronics projects quickly is pretty well optimized on the Bones and on BeagleBone Black we introduced an on-board eMMC flash (4GB as of rev C) that is pre-programmed with a Debian Linux distribution, out-of-box tutorial, IDE and everything you need to start your development. Part of our motivation to include this was the existence of forgery SD cards. The on-board eMMC has clear specifications on performance and reliability which are a must for doing any serious work. The higher bandwidth interface gives a nice performance boost. Having the flash pre-programmed saves significant time and money by delivering an immediate out-of-box developer experience without needing to visit the store again and download huge disk images.</p>
<p>The Bone also includes features like USB client and boot from USB/serial direct from the in-chip ROM code. The USB client is a key component to the unique rapid quick-start out-of-box experience shipped with every Bone. Plug it in and the exposed flash drive has all the documentation and drivers needed to work with the board from any computer. The board serves up a web site with a tutorial for learning to do physical I/O and an IDE for doing all of your development, even a command-line, right with your browser. Native tools and libraries ship for Python, JavaScript, C/C++, Ruby, Perl and others, but Java and an endless supply of others are only an 'apt-get' away.</p>
<p>BeagleBoard.org continues to be the innovator and the open partner with BeagleBoard-X15 already in the hands of beta developers, though it hasn't yet been officially "announced". That is a bit of the differences in the way we do things. The device documentation is already public and patches for BeagleBoard-X15 have already been pushed on the Linux mailing lists. When BeagleBoard-X15 does launch, it will have many times the performance and interface possibilities than Pi 2.</p>
<p>The Pi 2 is a pretty cool little affordable desktop computer with a business model that makes it attractive for those who want to use it as-is. For those who want to make cool stuff with electronics that includes an embedded Linux computer, they need to be sure to check out what the Beagles have to offer.</p>jkridner.wordpress.com11 Feb 2015 20:00:44 UTC2015-02-09-time-for-gsochttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-02-09-time-for-gsoc/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-02-09-time-for-gsoc/<h1>Time for another Google Summer of Code<br /><small style="font-size: 12px;">by Jason Kridner</small></h1>
<p>Google starts accepting applications for potential mentoring organizations on today, February 9th. BeagleBoard.org is going to send in an application. Your help is needed to make that application as strong as it can be!</p>
<ol>
<li>Sign up on the mailing list:&nbsp;<a href="http://bit.ly/bbgsocml">http://bit.ly/bbgsocml</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li>Join the eLinux wiki and review/update the ideas page:&nbsp;<a href="http://bit.ly/bbgsocideas">http://bit.ly/bbgsocideas</a></li>
<li>Prospective mentors: update your info on the ideas page (change something so I know you are alive or I'll remove you)</li>
<li>Prospective students: contact prospective mentors NOW and start looking for simple tasks to prove your ability to handle a project&nbsp;</li>
</ol>
<p>Need some motivation and inspiration? Check out some of the cool projects that have been executed under BeagleBoard.org's mentorship under the Google Summer of Code in previous years. I've grouped them by some of the typical focus areas where BeagleBoard.org seeks to improve the status of open source software.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#learning">Improving initial experience for novice developers</a></li>
<li><a href="#linux">Linux kernel support for embedded devices and interfaces</a></li>
<li><a href="#arm">ARM processor support in open source operating systems and libraries</a></li>
<li><a href="#coproc">Heterogeneous co-processor support in open source operating systems and libraries</a></li>
<li><a href="#userspace">Linux userspace support of embedded devices and interfaces in high-level languages</a></li>
</ul>
<p>We'll be meeting up on <a href="http://bit.ly/bbgsocchat">http://bit.ly/bbgsocchat</a> (#beagle-gsoc) every Wednesday at noon US Eastern time (<a href="http://bit.ly/bbgsocmeet">http://bit.ly/bbgsocmeet</a>), which is 5PM GMT until March 8th when it switches to 4PM GMT.</p>
<h2 id="learning">Improving initial experience for novice developers</h2>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CIugTSnqcf4" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hxzoz6f4Q5w" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>
<h2 id="linux">Linux kernel related</h2>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wcGk4VmviU0" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QymwVr9gY-Y" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d_vYMTuSGrM" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<h2 id="arm">ARM related</h2>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dxjaFsWYkAM" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gvJ32T-W3Gw" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JTsZL-puy-E" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>
<h2 id="coproc">Co-processor related</h2>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CDbEAq33vdA" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/iHVhG-9td0M" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/irROS-2n0mU" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c8z-UxFwsQA" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TSgAzdaJ1Xo" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>
<h2 id="userspace">High-level language support for Linux interfaces related</h2>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mp398Lkmzak" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1F0S5ajq-Ls" width="640" height="360"></iframe></p>jkridner.wordpress.com09 Feb 2015 20:16:32 UTC2015-01-28-thought-leadership-regarding-internet-thingshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-01-28-thought-leadership-regarding-internet-things/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-01-28-thought-leadership-regarding-internet-things/<h1>Thought Leadership Regarding the Internet of Things<br /><small style="font-size: 12px;">by Jason Kridner</small></h1>
<p>With browsers and rich applications available to us everywhere, desires for information and control are growing astronomically. Entrepreneurial, design and cross-discipline engineering skills are all required to launch a successful connected device. Thankfully, Brian DeLacey with other technology enthusiasts around Cambridge and Boston are exploring what it takes to educate individuals and teams on the required skills in the most expedient ways possible. I was fortunate to be a <a href="../../iotfestival">guest speaker at an IoT event</a>&nbsp;he hosted at MIT and to participate in his week long Independent Activities Period (<a href="http://web.mit.edu/iap/" target="_blank">IAP</a>) class, supporting use of BeagleBone Black.<br /><br /><img src="../../static/images/IoTIAPWed3.jpg" alt="IoT IAP class" width="640" height="427" /></p>
<p>This class had an amazing mix of people with different talents and interests. Starting on Monday, almost all of the class had no experience with BeagleBone Black and most had no experience with Linux either. Most of the lecture stayed focused on making sure the students had a view of the larger picture as well as typical pitfalls. By the end of the week, however, everyone built their own custom working project that communicated with the Internet and connected to physical sensors and actuators (like lights and motors).</p>
<p>Part of their success has to be attributed to getting grouped up with cross-disciplinary skills. This is something I've <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Maker-Learn-Enough-Anything/dp/1449356435" target="_blank">learned from other makers</a> and a great reason for you to join a local hackerspace.</p>
<p>Brian's approach in the classroom is just a part of his thought leadership. Leading up to this workshop, he contacted me with interest in getting Google's Dart programming lanugage running on BeagleBone Black. A nice recent version of Dart running on ARM is something that isn't yet provided in Debian's Linux distribution feeds. Robert Nelson of Digi-Key, however, was able to quickly engage the Google developers to resolve any build issues and package it into his own custom feads for Beagle. Now, Dart is only an apt-get away from a BeagleBone Black user running one of <a href="http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#Debian_Image_Testing_Snapshots" target="_blank">Robert's latest builds</a>.</p>
<p>Arriving at the classroom, I hadn't had any experience programming in Dart. One of the first challenges we faced in the classroom was not knowing the web address of each of BeagleBone being used and matching that up to a physical board without plugging into each board directly via USB. Fortunately, the serial numbers were printed on the side of each board, giving them a physically recognizable attribute. Within minutes, I was able to cobble together some <a href="https://gist.github.com/jadonk/178f9aa0f96363e4277e#file-send_net_info-dart" target="_blank">Dart code</a> as an example to publish the addresses matched to serial numbers of each board. I used a service called Dweet.io as a common ground to share the messages coming from the boards. I'm definitely going to keep learning about this language and am excited to have at least a bit of it in my toolbox now.</p>
<p>Dart wasn't the only technology Brian got me exploring. He also introduced me to <a href="https://www.docker.com/" target="_blank">Docker</a>. Docker is "an open platform for distributed applications for developers and sysadmins" and claims to enable you to "Build, Ship and Run Any App, Anywhere". Looking at it a bit, it makes it easy to reproduce an environment on top of an operating system for the execution of your app. While at first glance you can see how this is pretty handy in the server world, it is less obvious how applicable it might be for an embedded system. I mean, it sounds kinda useful for networking apps, but wouldn't it be resource heavy?</p>
<p>Somewhat of an answer to that question came to me the next week when Canonical released <a href="../../snappy">Snappy Ubuntu Core</a>&nbsp;targeted at Internet Things. Ubuntu Core includes a new package installation tool that is lighter on resources and somewhat focuses on the ability to run Docker. It is also said to have an additional amount of security around running applications taken from the Ubuntu Phone effort. Apparently, the memory requirement is only 128MB. The release distribution includes a reference image for BeagleBone Black, enabling people to start playing with it on real embedded hardware immediately. It certainly has me thinking these container technologies coule play a major role in the future of connected devices.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mPawEgseFSo" width="425" height="350"></iframe></p>
<p>Also speaking at the IoT event was&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/phoddie" target="_blank">Peter Hoddie</a>&nbsp;of Kinoma. We had a great discussion and largely agreed on the pros and cons of doing tops-down development vs. community-oriented development akin to <a href="http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/" target="_blank">the Cathedral and the Bazaar</a>. The KinomaJS software provides an impressive looking out-of-box experience and was rather motivating for me. In particular, it encouraged me to check up on some of the fun work going on at Tufts University a few miles away. There, <a href="http://www.ceeo.tufts.edu/people/thomas.htm" target="_blank">Jenn Thomas of the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach</a>&nbsp;has been working on a web-based GUI that allows you to quickly probe and manipulate the BeagleBone Black I/O pins. For someone very new to working with hardware, the visual feedback is great to give them a feel for what is happening in the hardware. It seems like this could add some real value to the out-of-box experience.</p>
<p><a href="http://jadonk.github.io/Beaglebone-UI/BBUI.html" target="_blank"><img src="../../static/images/bbui_snap.png" alt="Beaglebone-UI" width="600" height="337" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>All together, it was an amazing week where I was learning constantly. I hope Brian knows how thankful I am, not only for allowing me to participate in the class and the event, but in providing some strongly needed thought leadership around how we get all the right information and control with our devices during this <em>connect them to the Internet</em> gold rush. Thanks!</p>jkridner.wordpress.com30 Jan 2015 19:03:15 UTC2015-01-28-declaring-the-drought-is-officially-overhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-01-28-declaring-the-drought-is-officially-over/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2015-01-28-declaring-the-drought-is-officially-over/<h1>Declaring the Drought is Officially Over<br /><small style="font-size: 12px;">by Jason Kridner</small></h1>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/18yTp8i" target="_blank"><img style="float: right; margin: 10px;" src="../../static/images/BeagleBoneBlackCluster.png" alt="BeagleBone Black Cluster" width="256" height="171" /></a>It was <a href="../2014-04-13-dude-wheres-my-beaglebone-black/">April last year when I wrote about how we were going to fix the board shortage</a>. Demand and activity have only increased since then, but the additional production capacity has paid off and there is now inventory of both the official <a href="https://octopart.com/bb-bblk-000-circuitco%2Belectronics-26478322" target="_blank">BeagleBoard.org BeagleBone Black manufactured by CircuitCo</a> and the <a href="https://octopart.com/bbone-black-4g-element14-39268687" target="_blank">logo-compliant BeagleBone Black manufactured by Element14</a> in every major region. In the US, major electronics retailers are stocking BeagleBone Black including a <a href="http://www.radioshack.com/make%3A-getting-started-with-beaglebone-black-kit%3A-version-2/2770345.html" target="_blank">Make-produced getting started kit at Radio Shack</a> and a <a href="http://www.microcenter.com/product/434844/element_14_beaglebone_black_-_revision_4" target="_blank">$39.99 sale at Micro Center</a> for most of this month.</p>
<p>Distributors are now starting to do more promotions with BeagleBone Black, including <a class="external" href="http://www.element14.com/community/community/members/blog/2015/01/16/win-a-beaglebone-black-from-element14" target="_blank">Element14's daily give-away of 2 BeagleBone Blacks</a> drawn randomly from individuals who sign up on their community site and refer a friend who signs up. MCM is doing a <a href="http://t.co/mhdy0AMhTm">free case give away until February 2nd</a>. I'm sure there are a bunch of other promotions I don't even know about.</p>
<p>Now that boards are out there, we can get back to showing people how to make the most out of their BeagleBone Blacks. One of the biggest gaps I've found in hackathons is a lack of awareness of the expected out-of-box experience. That is, most people never check out <a href="../../getting-started">http://beagleboard.org/getting-started</a> leading to the tutorial served-up by the on-board web server. From there, most people never discover the Cloud9 IDE with its highly-functional Linux command shell right in the browser. After that, the next biggest struggle is opening up people's minds to what they can create. Blinking an LED is easy, but it isn't hard to find <a href="http://bit.ly/18yTp8i">blog posts</a> or even a book on building <a href="http://amzn.to/1A2DKd1" target="_blank">BeagleBone Black Super Clusters</a>. Fortunately, that isn't the only topic for which there is a <a href="http://bit.ly/1BA3taI" target="_blank">BeagleBone book</a> for which you can learn about the amazing things these boards can do.</p>
<p>Current list of BeagleBone Black books: <a class="external" href="http://bit.ly/bbb-books">http://bit.ly/bbb-books</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> <a href="http://t.co/mhdy0AMhTm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.mcmelectronics.com/images/v4/promo/carousel/BBB.jpg" alt="MCM promo" width="700" height="200" align="center" /></a></p>jkridner.wordpress.com29 Jan 2015 18:54:14 UTC2014-12-14-year-of-the-beaglehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-12-14-year-of-the-beagle/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-12-14-year-of-the-beagle/<h1>The Year of the Beagle<br /><small style="font-size: 12px;">by Jason Kridner</small></h1>
<p>2014 has been an amazing year for BeagleBoard.org and&nbsp;<a href="../../black">BeagleBone Black</a>, the most successful open hardware computer ever invented. I know what you <a href="https://upverter.com/Beagle/" target="_blank"><img style="float: right; padding: 5px;" src="../../static/images/Google%20ChromeScreenSnapz183.png" alt="BeagleBone Black on Upverter" width="205" height="129" /></a>are thinking; &ldquo;Jason, didn't that board from the UK outsell BeagleBone Black?&rdquo; Sure, but that board isn't open hardware: there aren't open source layout files or open source editable schematics and the components in the bill of materials aren't readily available. With boards from BeagleBoard.org, anyone can make them, and if they make enough of them, they can be made at a similar or even lower price point. That's only part of the beauty of open hardware.</p>
<p>We started 2014 with a big issue:&nbsp;<a href="../2014-04-13-dude-wheres-my-beaglebone-black/">not enough BeagleBone Blacks were available for everyone that wanted one (or a thousand)</a>. All official BeagleBoard.org boards are made cost effectively in Richardson, TX by&nbsp;<a class="external" href="http://circuitco.com/" target="_blank">CircuitCo</a>&nbsp;and they've been working around the clock to make more boards. They have been increasing their output, but they need solid orders and strong lead times to produce enough boards for people dropping them into volume products. Thanks to the open source nature of Beagle, clones have been out there. To improve availability, we tested one from Element14's Embest subsidiary in China and declared it "<a href="../../logo">BeagleBoard Compliant</a>". Now,&nbsp;<a class="external" href="http://octopart.com/bb-bblk-000-circuitco+electronics-26478322" target="_blank">BeagleBone Black is readily available all over the world</a>, including <a href="http://octopart.com/bbone-black-4g-element14-39268687" target="_blank">Element14's version</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://e2e.ti.com/group/launchyourdesign/b/blog/archive/2014/09/29/beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-poursteady" target="_blank"><img style="width: 275px; height: 206px; float: right; padding: 10px;" src="http://e2e.ti.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-08-77/0027.2014_2D00_WorldMakerFaire_2D00_PourSteady.jpg" alt="PourSteady" width="550" height="412" /></a></p>
<p>BeagleBone Black's success in 2014 was reflected in incredible launches on <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chaibio/open-qpcr-dna-diagnostics-for-everyone" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a> of <a href="../2014-12-03-beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-open-qpcr/">Open qPCR, an open hardware DNA diagnostic machine</a>, and <a href="../2014-08-12-project-spotlight-squink/">Squink, an electronics factory for your desktop</a>. These are some stand-out projects, but what really gave me a sense of BeagleBone Black's success was a walk around some of the <a href="http://makerfaire.com/bay-area-2014/topics/?tag=beaglebone" target="_blank">Maker Faires</a>. It seemed everybody was using a Bone if they were looking to include a computer in their project &ndash; at least if they were building more than one. One of the most popular uses of BeagleBone Black is in lighting controllers, thanks to the high performance and ability for the <a href="../../pru">Programmable Real-time Units (PRUs)</a> ability to create custom interfaces for affordable large-scale LED panels. These could be seen from the most deadly lighting display at the exhibit, the <a href="../2013-12-17-project-spotlight-orbital-rendersphere/">Orbital Rendersphere from Hoboken Hackerspace</a>, to the most active video game playing on the <a href="http://hackaday.com/2014/06/05/the-megascroller-for-video-games-in-the-round/" target="_blank">Megascroller from Trammell Hudson and Justin Day</a> (based on his Trammell's previous work on <a href="../2013-10-22-project-spotlight-octoscroller/">Octoscroller</a>). Showing up in a more surprising place, when I was getting a free cup of coffee in the morning. I introduced myself as being from BeagleBoard.org and the makers of <a href="http://e2e.ti.com/group/launchyourdesign/b/blog/archive/2014/09/29/beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-poursteady" target="_blank">PourSteady, the automated pour-over coffee machine</a>, proceeded to slide the case off and show me the Bone inside responsible for controlling this amazing machine. Checking out the advanced vision capabilities of the <a href="../2014-11-25-project-spotlight-picknpaste/">Pick 'n Paste circuit assembly machine from Carbide Labs</a>, it is readily apparent why people are choosing BeagleBone Black for machine controls and it won't be too long before Bones start making themselves!</p>
<p>With all of the success seen in 2014, 2015 is where we'll most certainly see the real strength of the Bone's open hardware nature. With the BeagleBone Black design now on a free on-line design tool called <a href="https://upverter.com/Beagle/" target="_blank">Upverter</a>, innovative sourcing, assembly and funding solutions from folks like <a href="../2014-11-12-CircuitHub-launches-group-buys-with-GamingCape/">CircuitHub.com</a>, and a significant flattening of the prices of pin-compatible <a href="http://www.ti.com/product/AM3358/compare" target="_blank">Sitara processors from Texas Instruments</a>, help prove that 2015 will be the year of the Bone clones. This means there will be more software compatible options with application focused features, such as <a href="https://twitter.com/TrubyZong/status/543112702130810880" target="_blank">Truby Zong's 3D-printer controller</a>.</p>
<p><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="../../static/images/trubyzorg_bbp.jpg" alt="Truby Zorg's 3D Printer Controller (BBP)" width="512" height="289" /></p>
<p>Thank you everyone who has bought, played, utilized, trained, wrote, expanded or contributed this year for making Beagle so successful in 2014. With community, capes, clones and coffee, 2015 is sure to be the year of the Beagle!</p>jkridner.wordpress.com15 Dec 2014 03:18:09 UTC2014-12-03-beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-open-qpcrhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-12-03-beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-open-qpcr/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-12-03-beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-open-qpcr/<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight: Open qPCR<br /><small style="font-size: 12px;">by Natalie Nelms</small></h1>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0">If you are what you eat, then it&rsquo;s important to avoid putting pathogens and viruses into your body, right? Nobody wants to be a germ.</span></p>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0">It should come as no surprise that the produce we fill our plates with can host a wide variety of illness-causing bacteria like E. coli or salmonella. While this may be a distressing thought, innovations in technology have presented us with ways to detect harmful microbes to ensure that only the best fruits and veggies enter our bodies.</span></p>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0">One such technological development comes in the form of the Open qPCR &ndash; a device that effectively performs DNA-based diagnostics to identify dangerous pathogens and viruses not only in food, but also viruses such has HIV, Malaria or Ebola in people, and can also determine the variants of genes that people have (genotyping). Open qPCR does this by identifying the DNA of the pathogen within the food sample. Although the amount of pathogenic DNA is minute compared to the DNA of the food, Open qPCR is able to selectively make copies of only the pathogenic DNA, which is then detected using the device's optics.</span></p>
<p class="c6 c8"><span style="overflow: hidden; display: inline-block; margin: 0.00px 0.00px; border: 0.00px solid #000000; transform: rotate(0.00rad) translateZ(0px); -webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad) translateZ(0px); width: 423.49px; height: 282.53px;"><img style="width: 423.49px; height: 282.53px; margin-left: -0.00px; margin-top: -0.00px; transform: rotate(0.00rad) translateZ(0px); -webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad) translateZ(0px);" title="" src="../../static/images/qpcrblog_image00.jpg" alt="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/002/839/626/484376a99416353e5c1fcebec454082a_large.jpg?1414918593" /></span></p>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0">&ldquo;I heard from so many people who had really interesting applications for this technology,&rdquo; detailed the Open qPCR&rsquo;s creator, Josh Perfetto, on the origins of this project. &ldquo;I wanted to produce a more comprehensive, automated solution for the testing process.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0">The Open qPCR is powered by a </span><span class="c0 c7"><a class="c5" href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ti.com%2Ftool%2Fbeaglebk&amp;sa=D&amp;sntz=1&amp;usg=AFQjCNGRwnLVV-tJT6eP0Oprz-PoHmsbBw">BeagleBone Black</a></span><span class="c0">&nbsp;and also utilizes the following materials in order to capture the necessary information from a sample&rsquo;s DNA:</span></p>
<ul class="c9 lst-kix_list_1-0 start">
<li class="c3"><span class="c0">Thermoelectric (peltier) modules</span></li>
<li class="c3"><span class="c0">Heat sink and fan</span></li>
<li class="c3"><span class="c0">Optical system including LEDs, photodiodes, interference filters and long-pass filters</span></li>
<li class="c3"><span class="c0">PCB containing both high-power circuitry to control peltiers and heaters, and sensitive circuitry to read low-level signals from photodiodes using a lock-in amplifier</span></li>
</ul>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0">Perfetto determined that he wanted to include the Sitara-processor-powered BeagleBone Black over other processes because of the extensive circuitry that the projected called for. In addition, the BeagleBone Black offered the most GB to work with in order to integrate all of the parts that exist within the Open qPCR.</span></p>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0">In terms of complications experienced during the development process, Perfetto explained how he &ldquo;needed to detect microvolt signals coming from our photodiodes.&rdquo; He did so by implementing LED modulation and lock-in amplifier circuits which can detect minute signals amongst greater background noise.</span></p>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0">&ldquo;It was almost magical the first time I saw it work,&rdquo; Perfetto described.</span></p>
<p class="c6 c8"><span style="overflow: hidden; display: inline-block; margin: 0.00px 0.00px; border: 0.00px solid #000000; transform: rotate(0.00rad) translateZ(0px); -webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad) translateZ(0px); width: 448.07px; height: 336.05px;"> <img style="width: 448.07px; height: 336.05px; margin-left: -0.00px; margin-top: -0.00px; transform: rotate(0.00rad) translateZ(0px); -webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad) translateZ(0px);" title="" src="../../static/images/qpcrblog_image01.png" alt="Open qPCR web UI showing detection interpretation. Results are labeled indeterminate if replicates vary or control reactions fail." /></span></p>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0">Looking towards the future, Perfetto is set on empowering non-biologists to perform these DNA diagnostics and will do so by including a key component to the design of the Open qPCR device. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got the hardware where we want it to be, but using it requires wetware,&rdquo; Perfetto offered on what else needs to be done to simplify the testing process.</span></p>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0">For more information on maker Josh Perfetto and his innovative designs, please visit </span><span class="c0 c7"><a class="c5" href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fchaibio.com%2Fopenqpcr&amp;sa=D&amp;sntz=1&amp;usg=AFQjCNFstk0pfbupxxBcPDcnun_Jg7IW4A">http://chaibio.com/openqpcr</a></span><span class="c0">&nbsp;and also check out their </span><span class="c0 c7"><a class="c5" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kickstarter.com%2Fprojects%2Fchaibio%2Fopen-qpcr-dna-diagnostics-for-everyone&amp;sa=D&amp;sntz=1&amp;usg=AFQjCNG_Jf-oGE4cMZ6kC35KL3X8H_0Q-Q">Kickstarter page</a></span><span class="c0">!</span></p>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0 c10">Want to chat with us about this project? Tweet us at <a href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg" target="_blank">@BeagleBoardOrg</a>!</span></p>
<p class="c6"><span class="c0">&nbsp;</span></p>jkridner.wordpress.com15 Dec 2014 03:15:29 UTC2014-11-25-project-spotlight-picknpastehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-11-25-project-spotlight-picknpaste/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-11-25-project-spotlight-picknpaste/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>Pick ‘n Paste </h1>
<p>By Natalie Nelms</p>
<p>
Not only man’s best friend, the Pick ‘n Paste is now a maker’s best friend!
</p>
<p>
Carbide Labs, a startup out of Philadelphia, is developing a desktop circuit assembly tool that is enough to melt any maker’s heart thanks to its capability to cut both the time and cost of a prototyping project. Not only does the Pick ‘n Paste place components on an unpopulated board for you, but it also goes one step further by applying solder paste, which can be used to secure the components through a separate baking step. All you have to do is place your board and components in the work area, input information about the prototype’s design, perform a quick calibration and voilà – your project is on its way to completion!
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://imgur.com/m8SbJZV"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/m8SbJZV.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
</p>
<p>
“The device is targeted towards users doing R&D work, iterative testing/prototyping, hobbyists,
hackerspaces, educational users, etc.,” explained Bob Sherbert, a Carbide team member. “Basically anyone who needs to do many unique designs or frequent iterations on a single design when they have a lot of small components involved would benefit from our device. It's built to cut out the high cost and lead times associated with doing mail away or hand assembly at low volumes.”
</p>
<p>
Some of the components that make the Pick 'n Paste possible:<br>
• TI’s <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">Sitara-processor-powered</a> <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp"> <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">BeagleBone Black</a> <br>
• Linear bearings and precision 8mm shaft <br>
• Small stepper motors (NEMA 17 and 11 sizes) <br>
• HTD belting for low backlash <br>
• Standard CP-6 vacuum tips <br>
</p>
<p>
“We were inspired by homebrew pick-and-place machines using CNC routers and 3D printer frames, which showed that it was possible to do pick and place on a small scale with inexpensive equipment,” Sherbert detailed further. “We were also excited to utilize the BeagleBone Black thanks to the presence of the PRUs, high I/O count and overall community enthusiasm for motion control capes and supporting software.”
</p>
<p>
Beyond solving the physical manipulation of the components, there were a few other challenges the team had to overcome. First among these was the issue of correcting position errors among the boards and components. To compensate for this, the team added an OpenCV based vision system. The vision system, along with a low-current stepper driver and microstepping implementation allowed for the rotation of parts to align with pads.
</p>
<p>
For more information on the Pick ‘n Paste and to keep track of what Carbide is up to next, visit:
<a href="http://pnp.carbidelabs.com">http://pnp.carbidelabs.com</a>!
</p>
<p>
Want to chat with us about this project? Tweet us at <a href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg">@BeagleBoardOrg</a>!
</p>
<p>
<p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com25 Nov 2014 22:11:56 UTC2014-11-12-CircuitHub-launches-group-buys-with-GamingCapehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-11-12-CircuitHub-launches-group-buys-with-GamingCape/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-11-12-CircuitHub-launches-group-buys-with-GamingCape/<h1>CircuitHub launches group buys with build of GamingCape</h1>
<small>by Jason Kridner</small>
<br />
<br />
<p>TL;DR - <a class="external" href="http://campaign.circuithub.com/beaglebone-gamingcape">$99 BeagleBone Black GamingCape from CircuitHub</a></p>
<br />
<p>In last year's <a class="external" href="http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/2013_Intern_Design_Challenge">TI
intern contest</a>, Max
Thrun amazed us with his <a class="external" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dwj1T84orbeY">incredible
video of the making</a> of the <a href="/project/gamingcape/">GamingCape</a>
that turned a BeagleBone Black
into a handheld-gaming console running on AAA batteries. If you are like
me, you immediately wanted one of your own. I ran out and bought a few PCBs
from <a class="external "href="https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/MjwwnFwm">OSHPark</a>, sourced parts
from Digi-Key and started assembling some boards. A few months later, as
you can see, I still don't have it 100% assembled.
</p>
<img width="60%" src="/static/images/IMG_3910.JPG" />
<p>
Well, I'm here to ask for your help in fixing this problem! I uploaded
Max's open hardware design to CircuitHub and they launched a new tool
enabling us to go in together on a board build. This means we can use our
combined purchasing power to lower the cost of buying the components and
justifying the time it takes to setup machines to do the assembly. While
Max's assembly skills are mesmerizing, they aren't going to put many boards
in people's hands.
</p>
<p>
Thanks to CircuitHub's new group buy campaign tool, instead of spending
about $1,000 on just a single board assembly, we are each able to buy one
for under $100! If more people buy them, the price might even go down
further, so encourage your friends to buy one too. So, what are you waiting
for? Head on over to the <a class="external" href="http://campaign.circuithub.com/beaglebone-gamingcape">group
buy campaign</a> and turn your BeagleBone into a handheld gaming device too!
</p>
<a class="external" href="http://campaign.circuithub.com/beaglebone-gamingcape">http://campaign.circuithub.com/beaglebone-gamingcape</a>
<p>
Note that this is a group purchase and not an off-the-shelf product. Max
has done much of the hard work in designing and testing this board, but it
isn't necessarily perfect. I'll be working with CircuitHub over the next
few weeks to fix issues that Max has pointed out. Join the Disqus
conversation on the page to help us hammer out the details, visit <a class="external" href="http://bear24rw.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/beaglebone-gamingcape.html">Max's
page</a> to review the design materials and join the fun.
</p>
<p>
Now how about watching that video just one more time...
</p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wj1T84orbeY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>jkridner.wordpress.com15 Nov 2014 04:53:52 UTC2014-11-10-project-spotlight-beaglebothttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-11-10-project-spotlight-beaglebot/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-11-10-project-spotlight-beaglebot/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>BeagleBot </h1>
<p>By Natalie Nelms</p>
<p>
It’s amazing what you can create when you pair a few spare parts lying
around and an inventive imagination. In this instance, these ingredients
gave birth to BeagleBot – a small test robot for localization algorithms!
</p>
<p>
“After seeing demos of SLAM at home brew robotics society meetings,
along with people using Kinects as cheap lidars, I was hooked on robot
localization,” explained BeagleBot’s creator Nathaniel Lewis on the origins
of this project. “I wanted to learn everything I could about these
algorithms and I needed a test platform. So, I took parts I had laying
around the house, along with a replacement Neato Lidar I found online and built BeagleBot.”
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://imgur.com/VJ4qiCl"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/VJ4qiCl.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
</p>
<p>
Lewis constructed his little venture out of the following parts to
effectively experiment with the workings of robot localization:<br>
• TI’s <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">Sitara-processor-powered</a> <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp"> <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">BeagleBone Black</a> <br>
• Robotics Connection Stinger Chassis <br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;- Simple machined aluminum frame <br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;- Simple three wheeled design: two gearmotors + encoders and a model aircraft tail wheel for a caster <br>
• Custom cape <br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;- 2x SN75540 motor drivers <br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;- 5V to 3.3V conversion logic for encoders <br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;- Driver logic for Neato Lidar (MOSFET and driver attached to PWM line)
• UWN200 WiFi adapter <br>
• Neato XV-11 Lidar <br>
• 1080p USB Webcam <br>
• GP2D12 Infrared Range Finders <br>
• 5600 mA/h USB battery pack for logic (one of those cell phone charger packs) <br>
• 2100 mA/h 2 cell LiPo for motors <br>
</p>
<p>
Lewis also explained in more detail the reasons behind why he chose the BeagleBone Black to serve as the brains for his robot. “I chose the BeagleBone because of the I/O capabilities, the form factor, and the price. The plethora of GPIO and PWM meant I didn’t need external microcontrollers to control motors or sensors. The small size meant I could shove it just about anywhere, and the price was unbeatable for the features. I still remember shelling out more money for a Parallax Basic Stamp 2 ten years ago, than I did for the BeagleBone Black!”
</p>
<p>
The finished product did not come without a few hiccups, however. Lewis divulged some challenges that he experienced while building his robot including trouble counting encoder pulses, getting Xenomai to work with the BeagleBone Black and accurately timing the input pulse from sonar. Thankfully, these issues were combatted with Lewis’ creativity and experience, and the BeagleBot became a functioning reality after some trial and error.
</p>
<p>
The maker also has big plans for the future – developing a low-cost motion capture system as an independent research project at University this semester!
</p>
<p>
For more information on the BeagleBot and to stay up-to-date with Lewis’ endeavors, visit:
<a href="http://nathanielrlewis.com/beaglebot">http://nathanielrlewis.com/beaglebot</a>.
</p>
<p>
Want to chat with us about this project? Tweet us at <a href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg">@BeagleBoardOrg</a>!
</p>
<p>
<p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com10 Nov 2014 15:44:02 UTC2014-08-25-project-spotlight-beaglerovhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-08-25-project-spotlight-beaglerov/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-08-25-project-spotlight-beaglerov/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>BeagleROV </h1>
<p>By Natalie Nelms</p>
<p>
You don’t have to be a child to play with remote-controlled cars.
The BeagleROV is an exciting toy that would bring any adult Maker
back to the good ole’ days – except this robot packs a bit more punch
than the classic Nascar minis. Powered by the TI <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">Sitara AM335x processor</a>-based
BeagleBone Black, the BeagleROV has a multitude of capabilities
that are all controlled remotely via the robot’s web application.
</p>
<p>
In addition to the vehicle’s remotely controlled technology,
the BeagleROV includes the following features:<br>
• Wi-Fi access to the web app with an adhoc Wi-Fi network<br>
• Real-time video processing with OpenCV<br>
• GPIO management to drive MOSFET actuators<br>
• Ultrasonic distance sensor reading<br>
</p>
<p>
This car definitely isn’t your granddad’s model.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Xd3xtYu.jpg" HEIGHT=357 WIDTH=430</p>
</p>
<p>
When asked why he developed this machine, creator Fabio Balzano
explained that he wanted to create a dynamic robot. “My company
is working in this kind of research and development, and we are especially interested in autonomous UAVs and ROVs,” explained Balzano.
</p>
<p>
The development of this vehicle did not come without complications,
however. “The HUB USB power wires were cut to prevent USB host port
power down,” detailed Balzano on the challenges of building his robot.
“I was able to solve this problem, though, by soldering a custom cape to connect all of the I/O.”
</p>
<p>
The BeagleROV’s technology also transcends the confines of the Earth’s
surface and has been utilized in underwater exploration. The marine
version of the robot is able to collect imaging and sample data from
depths of up to 1,000 meters below the surface, which has sufficiently
helped organizations like <a href="http://www.maregroup.org/the-beagle-rov.html">Marine Applied Research and Exploration</a>
gather the information that they need to learn more about the oceanic
habitat. The ability of <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">BeagleBone Black</a> to support OpenCV real-time
video processing really comes into play here as explorers look to
stream live footage of the ever-intriguing mystery that is the sea.
</p>
<p>
Looking towards the future, Fabio and his team plan to develop a
more advanced and improved version of this robot. The BeagleROV has
proven to not only serve as a hobbyist project, but has also shown
to be beneficial in the exploration of our wondrous planet. It is an
exciting time for the BeagleROV team and we are eager to see what
future models will be capable of.
</p>
<p>
For more information on the BeagleROV and for a detailed look
at the code that Fabio implemented in the vehicle, you can visit
the project’s site at: <a href="https://bitbucket.org/fabiodive/bsdcan2014">https://bitbucket.org/fabiodive/bsdcan2014</a>.
Want to collaborate or need help with your project? Feel free to
contact Fabio at: <a href="mailto:fabio.balzano@elfarolab.com">fabio.balzano@elfarolab.com</a>.
</p>
<p>
Want to chat with us about this project? Tweet us at <a href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg">@BeagleBoardOrg</a>!
</p>
<p>
<p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>nelms.natalie10 Nov 2014 15:40:43 UTC2014-10-28-project-spotlight-MILSTD1553http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-10-28-project-spotlight-MILSTD1553/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-10-28-project-spotlight-MILSTD1553/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>Implementing MIL-STD-1553 with three Beagles </h1>
<p>By Natalie Nelms</p>
<p>
Oh, the places you’ll go when using three <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">BeagleBone Blacks!</a>
</p>
<p>
Maker and engineering expert Trefor Delve explored this idea by
developing a parallel simulation proof of concept that ran
on three <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">Sitara-processor-powered</a> BeagleBone Blacks in order to implement a MIL-STD-1553 bus system and interface to real and virtual hardware.
</p>
<p>
“There is always a need during a development to be able to scale performance
as computational needs increase,” Delve explained as he discussed the
inspiration behind the project. “This raises its own issues in terms of
how to provide that capability. Add to that the problem that often real
world I/O is required and the problem becomes multi-dimensional:
performance issues, problem description and hardware management. A
cost effective means to implement a proof of concept was required.”
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/qJkGpNA.jpg" HEIGHT=307 WIDTH=409>
</p>
<p>
Traditionally, MIL-STD-1553 is identified as a military standard
published by the U.S. Department of Defense that defines the mechanical,
electrical and functional aspects of a serial data bus. This particular
piece of technology has been in existence since 1973, but multiple
revisions have been made to it over time and it has become the most
predominantly used networking standard for both military and civil avionics.
</p>
<p>
The fact that this piece of hardware is so dynamic is what
enabled Delve to further explore its capabilities and design
his proof of concept. The MIL-STD-1553 and BeagleBone Black
combo certainly makes for an interesting project with its rich
history and durable design.
</p>
<p>
When asked why Delve integrated three BeagleBone Blacks
into this type of bus system as opposed to other platforms, he
detailed that, “a full development on PC-based hardware can be an
expensive proposition – especially in a proof of concept environment.
The BeagleBone Black contained the basic hardware required: multichannel
ADC (analog to digital converter), PWM (pulse width modulated) outputs
and SPI outputs. In addition, the ability to download and compile
standard tools like MPICH (a high performance message passing interface)
and QT (a cross-platform application framework) provided an industrial-strength
demonstration platform. The BeagleBone Black represented a cost effective proposition.”
</p>
<p>
Fortunately for the project’s process, Delve ran into minimal issues.
</p>
<p>
He expressed that “the only concerns were that the BeagleBone Blacks
used were early devices so there were some issues with the ADC operation
in terms of when samples were valid. The PWM outputs had some issues
where it was difficult to make changes to update rates. There were
solutions for each of these problems that worked in my situation – some
were at the cost of capabilities that other users may have needed.”
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/tTSjyau.jpg" HEIGHT=307 WIDTH=409>
</p>
<p>
Delve plans on continuing his work with electrical engineering by
applying BeagleBone Black to automotive instrumentation, making use of
the ADC and PWM capabilities. Stay tuned for more on that!
</p>
<p>
Want to chat with us about this project? Tweet us at <a href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg">@BeagleBoardOrg</a>!
</p>
<p>
<p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>doug30 Oct 2014 16:54:22 UTC2014-09-08-project-spotlight-sleeptighthttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-09-08-project-spotlight-sleeptight/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-09-08-project-spotlight-sleeptight/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBoard-xM project spotlight:<br>Sleep Tight </h1>
<p>By Natalie Nelms</p>
<p>
Picture this: You’re lying in bed, exhausted from a long day of
work; your eyelids are heavy, but you’re devoted to finishing the
last page of your favorite novel. You conclude the last page, set
the book down on your nightstand, get in the perfect sleeping position
and then regrettably realize that your bedroom lamp is still on.
With a sigh, you get out of your cozy bed and turn off the light,
but not after aggressively stubbing your toe on your nightstand on
the way back to bed.
</p>
<p>
Now imagine avoiding this whole scenario by simply telling your
lamp or lights to turn off. With voice-controlled technology, Sleep
Tight can easily turn off your light from the comfort of your own bed.
Users will find themselves in sweet dreams immediately.
</p>
<p>
Electronic engineer, F.Can Akinci, hatched the idea after recognizing
the frustration of book-lovers at bedtime and the need for a convenient solution.
</p>
<p>
“Most people love to read in their beds at night to have a better
night’s sleep,” said Akinici, the embedded electronics enthusiast.
“When you finish reading and are ready to sleep, you have to leave
your warm bed and get up to reach the switch. Thanks
to the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/beagleboard-xm">BeagleBoard-xM</a>-powered Sleep Tight,
you won’t even need to move your hand to switch off the lamps.”
</p>
<p>
The project components include a microphone with a 3.5 mm jack,
DSP capabilities of BeagleBoard and a relay for switching lights.
The team opted for the <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">Sitara-processor</a>-based BeagleBoard-xM as the
direct board for the device as its DSP unit can handle the
voice recognition tasks.
</p>
<p>
Although now a graduate of Middle East Tech University, Akinici once
dreamed of playing professional basketball and came extremely close
joining the pros. Now, he uses that athleticism and competitive edge to create!
He is currently in the beginning stages of the Sleep Tight project,
but hopes to finish in the coming weeks. Once complete, he plans to
continue on to his next venture: creating a gesture-controlled system.
</p>
<p>
Check out F. Can Akinci’s <a href="http://wlbeagleboard.wordpress.com/">blog</a> for updates on the ongoing project
and to learn more feel free to contact him via Twitter: @wholelottajam.
</p>
<p>
Want to chat with us about this project? Tweet us at <a href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg">@BeagleBoardOrg</a>!
</p>
<p>
<p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com08 Sep 2014 15:17:12 UTC2014-08-27-device-tree-overlay-support-lands-upstreamhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-08-27-device-tree-overlay-support-lands-upstream/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-08-27-device-tree-overlay-support-lands-upstream/<h1>Device Tree Overlay Support Lands Upstream</h1>
<p><a class="external" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/pantoniou">Pantelis Antoniou</a> originated device tree overlay support for the purpose of enabling dynamic hardware configuration under Linux on devices like BeagleBone that use device tree for hardware configuration. Device tree was introduced to Linux for the purpose of putting the description of hardware into data structures, rather than building it up programmatically, greatly reducing the amount of code required to be maintained within the Linux kernel sources. <a href="http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-02-18-project-spotlight-logi-bone/"><img style="float:right;width:50%;padding:5px;" src="http://i.imgur.com/cMm5cTU.jpg" /></a> Until now, the device tree data structure was only processed at boot time and that simply can't work for devices that might change hardware configurations after boot. While many BeagleBone capes can be probed by the bootloader, a common use-case is hardware that is reconfigurable. The most obvious example is a cape with an <a class="external" target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-programmable_gate_array">FPGA</a> on it. </p>
<p>Pantelis' early code was used in the <a class="external" target="_blank" href="http://elinux.org/BeagleBone_and_the_3.8_Kernel">kernel provided with the launch of BeagleBone Black</a>. This became the standard for how BeagleBone cape hardware is supported with numerous <a href="https://learn.adafruit.com/introduction-to-the-beaglebone-black-device-tree/overview" class="external" target="_blank">tutorials</a> showing up and probing of the on-board cape EEPROMs by <a href="http://elinux.org/Capemgr">Capemgr</a>. This was all done specifically for BeagleBone kernels and was not part of mainline Linux until today when <a class="external" target="_blank" href="https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=201c910bd6898d81d4ac6685d0f421b7e10f3c5d">Linus' accepted Pantelis' patch for device tree transactional support</a> which introduces <a href="https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/Documentation/devicetree/changesets.txt" class="external" target="_blank">changesets to device tree support</a>.</p>
<p>Thank you Pantelis for your persistence!</p>
<p>This means that we should soon have Capemgr support in newer kernels and we are trying to get a jump on that now. However, we've also learned a few things over the last year about what the typical cape maker might feel comfortable understanding and debugging. <a href="https://github.com/RobertCNelson" class="external" target="_blank">Robert Nelson</a> has been releasing <a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/linux/tree/3.14" class="external" target="_blank">kernel images based on 3.14 stable trees and TI patch sets</a> along with <a href="http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian" class="external" target="_blank">test Debian images</a>. This was <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Community/Forums?place=msg%2Fbeagleboard%2F4eDQvQOkUkc%2FRjWyIrXcYgwJ" class="external" target="_blank">announced on the mailing list</a> recently along with instructions on downloading newer images, updating to newer kernels and reporting issues. In this new kernel effort, we are starting with trying to enable every cape and I/O function we can manage <b>without overlays</b> first, then will make use of overlays for any features. The initial direction was to create a <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Community/Forums?place=msg%2Fbeagleboard%2FULhioCVzbYk%2FZ1yeu1YBThAJ" class="external" target="_blank">separate git tree</a> for this effort, but that idea was dropped and the latest Beagle kernels can all be found at <a href="http://github.com/beagleboard/linux" class="external" target="_blank">github.com/beagleboard/linux</a> with live Debian-packaged builds at <a href="http://builds.beagleboard.org" target="_blank" class="external">builds.beagleboard.org</a>.</p>
<p>Your help testing and patching this kernel, along with your appreciation of those continuing to advance the state of the mainline Linux kernel, is greatly appreciated. Thanks all!</p>
jkridner.wordpress.com27 Aug 2014 19:46:24 UTC2014-08-06-project-spotlight-pocket-nchttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-08-06-project-spotlight-pocket-nc/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-08-06-project-spotlight-pocket-nc/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>Pocket NC P5</h1>
<p>By Natalie Nelms</p>
<p>
Computer numerical control (CNC) milling machines
have been around for decades. Most are industrial-sized,
and are used create everything from the shaped trim on
a house to the mechanical components of a space shuttle.
Over the last decade, a large do-it-yourself community has
emerged giving a new market to CNC milling machines as personal,
rather than solely industrial applications.
</p>
</p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/1eKfqI8.jpg" WIDTH=375 HEIGHT=268 />
</p>
<p>
Matt, Michelle, Gary, Duane and Bannor from
<a href="http://www.pocketnc.com/">Pocket NC</a> have
always been tinkerers and enjoy pursuing projects from their
homes. After searching long and hard for a personal desktop mill,
Matt and his team turned to the <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">Sitara-processor-based</a>
BeagleBone Black to design and build a milling machine for themselves. Thus,
the Pocket NC P5 was born!
</p>
<p>
“We saw an amazing opportunity for creativity that could open up
if we had the ability to make real parts for projects and
prototyping from our house,” said Matt, the ‘inventor captain’
from Pocket NC. “Three and a half years ago we embarked on the
journey to bring a sophisticated milling machine to the masses.”
</p>
<p>
The Pocket NC P5’s subtractive manufacturing process starts with
a solid piece of material and carves out the desired part according
to computer generated tool paths. Compared to 3D printing, milling
offers a much wider variety of possible materials to use
(including metals and wood), which produces stronger finished parts.
</p>
<p>
Pocket NC P5 is driven by the LinuxCNC distribution Machine Kit
running on a BeagleBone Black. The 5-axis machine utilizes precision
linear and rotary bearings, stepper motors and an NSK spindle with
quick change capabilities and brushless servo direct drive.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/sP5YF82.jpg" WIDTH=326.4 HEIGHT=224.8
</p>
<p>
“We chose the BeagleBone Black for its compact size and functionality,”
Matt said. “It’s powerful enough to drive all five axes of our machine;
and it offers many GPIO pins and fast PRU pins. The features on the
board gave us hope that we could bring desktop machining into
the 21st century.”
</p>
<p>
Although the team’s strengths are predominantly mechanical skills,
they found engineers and hobbyists to assist with the project in the
electronics and software areas. The Pocket NC P5 project is fully
funded by the team, so challenges arose when looking for people to
contribute without an immediate payout. Finding the right people who
are passionate about the project ruled out the financial hardships
that came with the project. Funding the project themselves, the team
learned how to be creative in finding ways to prototype their machines.
</p>
<p>
The team took sixth months to develop the design of a 3-axis mill
but quickly realized many people would be more interested in a 5-axis
machine. After building and learning from three prototypes, they
built a fourth prototype that they took to World Maker Faire New
York in 2013. Today, the team is in the process of building and
testing five Beta machines before taking the product to market.
</p>
<p>
“We want to continue developing our machine to bring down the cost,
while also adding more features to it,” Matt said. “We will either be
working on that, or developing a perpetual motion machine. We have
learned a lot through the process and are always thankful for the
encouragement and support we receive from the community.”
</p>
<p>
If you'd like to learn more about the Pocket NC P5, feel free to
visit <a href="http://www.pocketnc.com/">www.pocketnc.com</a> or check it out on
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pocketnc">Facebook</a>,
<a href="https://twitter.com/pocketnc">Twitter</a>
and <a href="http://instagram.com/pocket_nc">Instagram</a>.
</p>
<p>
Want to chat with us about this project? Tweet us at @BeagleBoardorg!
</p>
</div>
</div>nelms.natalie12 Aug 2014 19:45:10 UTC2014-08-12-project-spotlight-squinkhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-08-12-project-spotlight-squink/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-08-12-project-spotlight-squink/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>Squink</h1>
<p>By Natalie Nelms</p>
<p>
Standing in line for coffee, a commercial break, boiling water – all things that only take a matter of minutes. What if building circuit boards were that easy and time efficient? At New York startup company BotFactory, devices print and assemble electronic circuit boards from your desktop in a matter of minutes. Creating electronic devices has never been easier.
</p>
<p>
While attending the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, BotFactory co-founders, Carlos Ospina and Nicolas Vansnick, were presented with the challenge to design, assemble and test a basic EEG system in their bio-electronics class. While the design of the EEG probes on paper and then on a CAD program took a big part of the semester, what was later revealed as the most critical part of the assignment was the circuit fabrication itself. Out of the eight teams, only one managed to finish on time for the end of the semester. The reason why? It took PCB manufacturers nearly ten days to fabricate and ship all the boards. If only one mistake was made in the design, the team had to send their design for fabrication again – ensuring a missed deadline.
</p>
<p>
Realizing they had worked on similar time sensitive projects previously, Carlos and Nicolas turned to NYU-Poly professor Michael Knox to create a 3D printer capable of printing circuit boards. After hours of brainstorming on the concept, the pair found their third co-founder and Squink. Squink is a desktop electronic circuit printer and assembler that allows you to upload your design files and create circuit boards in less than thirty minutes for only five dollars.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/fYud27W.jpg" WIDTH=697 HEIGHT=523
</p>
<p>
An intuitive user interface walks you through a three-step process. First, conductive ink is applied onto a substrate, such as photo-paper or glass. Second, conductive glue dots are dropped where part pins will be placed. Finally, Squink picks up the parts from a tray, rotates them and places them on the glue dots to complete the circuits. The Squink printer is run through a web interface, which means you don’t have to download any software.
</p>
<p>
The printer consists of a <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">Sitara-processor-powered</a> BeagleBone Black, 3D-axis frame, custom made board to drive inkjet and five motors, custom made plastic parts for different heads, a camera to run computer vision algorithms and several different softwares.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/3sE3mqR.jpg" WIDTH=697 HEIGHT=523
</p>
<p>
“We choose the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">BeagleBone Black</a> because we needed a bigger number of IO's than usually available on other development boards,” said Nicolas. “The PRU was a very attractive feature to drive our motors efficiently, since we had some problems with our previous development board. We also wanted to use an OS and a multi-platform language, and the price was too hard to beat for the specs it offers!”
</p>
<p>
Can't keep the printer right next to your computer? Not a problem!
Squink lets you connect through a USB cable, an Ethernet cable, or a wireless adapter. The choice is yours.
</p>
<p>
Building a circuit board is never without its challenges. The physical
tolerance of parts gave the team trouble during the pick and place process.
Additionally, it took them a while to get a reliable printing head.
The team credits their third-place win and current success to each
individuals perseverance and a desire to prove doubters and non-believers
wrong. “We would not be where we are now without the support from
the hardware and maker community in New York City,” said the team.
“It takes real believers to move mountains.”
</p>
<p>
For more information about Squink or to help support the project,
check out their <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/botfactory/squink-the-personal-electronic-circuit-factory">Kickstarter campaign</a>
and <a href="http://www.botfactory.co/product">website</a>. Additionally,
you can follow their journey on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BotFactory">
Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/BotFactoryNYC">Twitter</a>.
</p>
<p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/eMM96VztQYM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</p>Video credit: BotFactory Squink
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Want to chat with us about this project? Tweet us at @BeagleBoardorg!
</p>
<p>
<p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com12 Aug 2014 19:43:13 UTC2014-05-14-have-no-fear-revc-is-herehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-05-14-have-no-fear-revc-is-here/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-05-14-have-no-fear-revc-is-here/<div class=WordSection1>
<h1>Have no fear; BeagleBone Black Rev C is here!</h1>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;
text-align:center;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;
text-align:center;line-height:normal;tab-stops:201.0pt;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>Easier to use, double the memory, <span
class=SpellE>Debian</span> based and ready to go from the box</span></i><i
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'> </span></i><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;
text-align:center;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#5F497A;mso-themecolor:accent4;
mso-themeshade:191'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>WHAT: <span
style='mso-tab-count:1'> </span></span></b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>The community asked and we
delivered!<b> </b>With BeagleBone Black Rev C,<b> </b>BeagleBoard.org has made
the move to the <span class=SpellE>Debian</span> GNU/Linux™ distribution
pulling directly from the upstream <span class=SpellE>Debian</span>
repositories. This means users will have an environment more familiar to the
majority of desktop Linux users and easy access to a huge library of pre-built
packages. From a hardware viewpoint, there is an increase of on-board storage
from 2GB to 4GB, giving customers more room for filling up their board with the
fun software they crave.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>BeagleBoard.org
also took this opportunity to enhance the experiences users care most about.<b
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> </b><a
href="http://ti.com/ep-pro-sit-MakerFaireBayArea-pr-evm">BeagleBone Black</a> Rev C
has a greatly improved developer experience thanks to our friends at Cloud9
IDE, including a fully functional terminal interface directly in the browser
and the ability to run Python, Ruby and INO Sketches directly in the IDE, in
addition to JavaScript on Node.JS and in your web browser. Rev C also includes easier
<span class=SpellE>WiFi</span> configuration from both the GUI and command-line
with support for more USB <span class=SpellE>WiFi</span> dongles out-of-the-box.<b
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='mso-tab-count:1'> </span><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#5F497A;mso-themecolor:accent4;mso-themeshade:191'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>WHEN<span style='color:#5F497A;mso-themecolor:accent4;
mso-themeshade:191'>: <span style='mso-tab-count:1'> </span></span></span></b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>10:00 a.m. - 8 p.m. PST<b> </b>on<b>
</b></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>May 17, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'><span
style='mso-tab-count:2'> </span>10:00
a.m. - 6 p.m. PST on May 18, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>For more
information, please see: </span><a href="http://makerfaire.com/bay-area-2014"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>http://makerfaire.com/bay-area-2014</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#5F497A;mso-themecolor:accent4;mso-themeshade:191'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#5F497A;mso-themecolor:accent4;mso-themeshade:191'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>WHERE: <span style='mso-tab-count:1'> </span></span></b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>Maker Faire Bay Area <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>San Mateo
Event Center <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>1346
Saratoga Dr.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>San Mateo,
CA 94403<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#5F497A;mso-themecolor:accent4;mso-themeshade:191'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>CONNECT: <span style='mso-tab-count:1'> </span></span></b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>Engage with makers and developers at </span><a
href="http://beagleboard.org/"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>BeagleBoard.org</span></a><span
class=MsoHyperlink><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:windowtext'> <span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></span><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Follow BeagleBoard.org
on </span><a href="https://twitter.com/beagleboardorg"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Twitter</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Connect
with BeagleBoard.org on </span><a
href="https://plus.google.com/+beagleboard/posts#+beagleboard/posts"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>Google+ </span></a><span class=MsoHyperlink><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:windowtext'><span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></span><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>SESSIONS:
<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>Join Jason Kridner at Maker Faire Bay
Area at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 18 on the Maker Electronics Stage as he
demonstrates how building mobile robots keeps getting easier. His presentation
is a rapid-fire tour of how people are using BeagleBone Black to build robots. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><span style='mso-tab-count:1'> </span>In
a panel, Kridner joins Robert Wessels and Adrian Fernandez on the Maker Pro
Stage on Saturday, May 17 at 5:00 p.m. They will be discussing rapid
prototyping with modular, open source hardware. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>BEAGLE ON THE CENTER STAGE:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>Dutch based <span
class=SpellE>fashiontech</span> designer and innovator <span class=SpellE>Anouk</span>
<span class=SpellE>Wipprecht</span> will be on Center Stage at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday,
May 17 to share her unique and wildly popular designs featuring BeagleBone
Black that move, breath, and react to the environment around them. See more
info </span><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/robotic-fashion-and-intimate-interfaces/"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>here</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>BEAGLE IN
ACTION:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'><span
style='mso-tab-count:1'> </span></span></b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>If you are excited to meet other
makers and learn about their projects, check out some of these projects that
use Beagle that will be at Maker Faire Bay Area. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;
text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo4;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/botfactory-inc/"><span class=SpellE><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>BotFactory</span></span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'> Inc.</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>: This project makes electronic
circuit board printing come a reality in a matter of minutes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;
text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo4;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/got-robots/"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>Got Robots?</span></a><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'> Who doesn’t love robots? These developers sure do!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;
text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo4;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/laser-shooting-gallery/"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>Laser Shooting Gallery</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>! Put your skills to the test
against autonomous laser turrets with this project. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;
text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo4;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/openrov-3/"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>OpenROV</span></a><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>: A community of DIY ocean explorers that use
low-cost underwater robots to do it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;
text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo4;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/personaled-2/"><span class=SpellE><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>PersonaLED</span></span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>: Wearable, interactive LED
display panels<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;
text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo4;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/bay-area-2014/topics/?tag=beaglebone"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>Wearable Dog Gear</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>: Looking to take your take your
Beagle everywhere you go?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpLast style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;
text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo4;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/texas-instruments-2/"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>Texas Instruments</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>: <span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Helping to develop new ideas that change
the way we live. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:normal;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>WORKSHOPS</span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>Still hungry
to learn more? There are plenty of Beagle workshops! Here are a few of them:</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;
text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l6 level1 lfo7;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol'><span
style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/getting-started-with-the-beaglebone-black-2/"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>Getting Started with BeagleBone Black</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;
text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l6 level1 lfo7;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol'><span
style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/cylon-js-the-javascript-evolution-of-open-source-robotics/"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>Cylon.js: The JavaScript Evolution Of Open Source Robotics</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;
text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l6 level1 lfo7;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol'><span
style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/programming-the-beaglebone-black-in-bonescript/"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>Programming the BeagleBone Black in BoneScript</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpLast style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;
text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l6 level1 lfo7;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol'><span
style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/web-interfaces-to-control-hardware-on-the-beaglebone-black/"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>Web Interfaces to Control Hardware on BeagleBone Black</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;tab-stops:372.9pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#5F497A;mso-themecolor:accent4;mso-themeshade:191'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;
text-align:center;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'># # #<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"'>About the BeagleBoard.org Foundation<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:
SimSun;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>The BeagleBoard.org Foundation
is a US-based 501(c) non-profit corporation existing to provide education in
and promotion of the design and use of open-source software and hardware in
embedded computing. A small group of enthusiastic engineers interested in
creating powerful, open and embedded devices are pioneering new ground in open
hardware. The products of their open collaboration, BeagleBoard, BeagleBoard-xM,
BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black, bridge desktop and embedded development and allow
developers to easily design to their own specifications. <span
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>The BeagleBoard.org community engages
passionate developers and fuels their innovations, whether they are designing
projects for work or fun. With publicly hosted open-source software, social
media feeds of ongoing development, and an active community mailing list and
live chat, developers have easy access to support and exchange of ideas. Visit </span></span><a
href="http://www.beagleboard.org/"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:windowtext;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>www.beagleboard.org</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:
SimSun;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'> to
get started today.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
jkridner.wordpress.com07 Aug 2014 19:17:49 UTC2008-04-19-lugradio-live-usa-2008http://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-04-19-lugradio-live-usa-2008/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-04-19-lugradio-live-usa-2008/<h1 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'>
LUGRadio Live USA 2008
</h1>
<div class='post-header'>
<div class='post-header-line-1'></div>
</div>
<div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-5342083497053403097' itemprop='description articleBody'>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2300/2413942139_006de8aab6.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2300/2413942139_006de8aab6.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />A few people got to play with Beagle at <a href="http://www.lugradio.org/live/USA2008/">LugRadio Live USA 2008</a>. One attendee even did a <a href="http://infoecho.net/blogs/echo/archives/2008/04/12/239/">small write-up in Chinese on Beagle and what else he saw at LRL</a>. There was quite a bit of interest from many people who have never thought of "embedded/ARM" development before. I was a bit more surprised by how many developers are getting more interested in solutions that allow them to embedded their solutions, Linux and otherwise, into many new places as can only be done with small, low-power devices and boards.<br /><br />My presentation, <a href="http://www.beagleboard.org/uploads/lugradio_20080411.PPT">"The DSP is Open"</a>, is available on-line. Keep your eyes out for video posts to show up on the <a href="http://forums.lugradio.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4094">LugRadio Forums</a>.
<div style='clear: both;'></div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com07 Aug 2014 19:08:44 UTC2014-05-30-beaglebone-project-spotlight-cryptocapehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-05-30-beaglebone-project-spotlight-cryptocape/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-05-30-beaglebone-project-spotlight-cryptocape/<div class=WordSection1>
<h1 class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'>BeagleBone project
spotlight: <a href="/project/cryptocape" class=SpellE>CryptoCape</a><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'>When I think of
cryptography, I think of movies like <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Sneakers</i>,
<i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>U571</i> and <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:
normal'>Pi</i>. However, Josh <span class=SpellE>Datko's</span> new solution
will put cryptography in the hands of every developer — not only
submariners (even though Josh happens to be one) and MENSA-level mathematicians
— so that everyone from students and garage developers to professional
engineers can secure their projects.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'>Josh and his company <span
class=SpellE>Cryptotronix</span>, in collaboration with <span class=SpellE>SparkFun</span>
Electronics, are creating the <span class=SpellE>CryptoCape</span> for <a
href="http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">BeagleBone Black</a>.
The <span class=SpellE>CryptoCape</span> is an open-source hardware collection
of cryptographic modules that extends the hardware cryptographic abilities of
BeagleBone Black. The computer is powered by TI's <a
href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">Sitara AM335x processor</a>,
which offers powerful cryptographic accelerators for AES, SHA and MD5 as well
as a hardware random number generator. The <span class=SpellE>CryptoCape</span>
coupled with BeagleBone Black will be a great solution for devices with
increased security demands, such as networked servers, hardware
"wallets" and more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'>The <span class=SpellE>CryptoCape</span>
will include features such as:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'>- A Trusted Platform Module
(TPM) that can be used to secure the boot process or store encrypted
information on BeagleBone Black.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'>- Two Atmel authentication
devices that provide, SHA-256, HMAC, or ECDSA based authentication and
integrity mechanisms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'>- A 5ppm I2C Real-Time
Clock with a dedicated coin-cell battery backup for accurate timekeeping in an
offline environment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'>- An Arduino-compatible
ATmega328p that can be programmed from the BeagleBone Black to upload your own
crypto libraries or to extend the <span class=SpellE>CryptoCape</span> with
your own projects.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'>The <span class=SpellE>CryptoCape</span>
will be manufactured by <span class=SpellE>SparkFun</span> Electronics and
available on their storefront soon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'>For more information about
the <span class=SpellE>CryptoCape</span>, visit Josh's <a href="http://cryptotronix.com/products/cryptocape/" class=SpellE>CryptoCape
page</a>. He provides status updates to the <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cryptocape" class=SpellE>CryptoCape
Google Group</a>; and <a href="https://github.com/sparkfun/cryptocape">design and source files are hosted at GitHub.</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-weight:normal'>Want to chat with us
about this project? Tweet us at </span></i><a
href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg"><i><span style='font-weight:normal'>@<span
class=SpellE>BeagleBoardOrg</span></span></i></a><i><span style='font-weight:
normal'>!</span></i><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
jkridner.wordpress.com07 Aug 2014 19:07:54 UTC2014-07-22-beaglebone-black-project-kuyurix-bus-speakershttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-07-22-beaglebone-black-project-kuyurix-bus-speakers/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-07-22-beaglebone-black-project-kuyurix-bus-speakers/<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight blog post: Kuyurix Bus Speakers</h1>
<p>Commuting in a big city is a tough task, especially when public transit and traffic
congestion make the process even more difficult. For someone who is blind, finding
your way around the city on public transportation in these conditions can seem daunting,
or nearly impossible. Marcelo Gutierrez recognized this issue and wanted to do something
about it. </p>
<p>Marcelo is a university professor teaching digital signal processing and Linux-embedded
courses. He designed and developed the Kuyurix, an audio-based system to assist people
who are blind on public bus transportation. It notifies passengers of upcoming main
streets and approaching points of interests, such as a hospital, making public transportation
much more comfortable for those with any visual impairment.</p>
<div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ztqaK3P.jpg" width="300px" alt="Kuyurix" /></div>
<p>The voice announcement system provides passenger information by an FM transmitter
connected to two speakers that carry the message. Marcelo used the free samples service
from Texas Instruments when constructing the first prototype. He integrated TI's
TLV320AIC3106 audio codec, TPS73701 linear regulator, LM4871 audio power amplifier
and LM22676 switching regulator. </p>
<p>"At the university from which I graduated, there is a library service for blind and
partially sighted people," said Marcelo, an electronic engineering alumnus from Universidad
Tecnológica Nacional - Facultad Regional Haedo. "So I thought [Kuyurix] might help
to make their lives just a little bit easier."</p>
<p>BeagleBone Black was chosen to power the bus speakers. All signals are present on
expansion headers, making cape development easy, and it incorporates an ARM® Cortex®-A8 core
(within TI's Sitara AM335x processor) that runs with low power consumption. In comparison
to similar products, BeagleBone Black provided the best performance for Marcelo's
project.</p>
<p>"Two weeks on the bus and BeagleBone Black is solid as a rock," Marcelo says.</p>
<p>Marcelo faced some challenges during the creation of the Kuyurix bus speakers. The
main challenge of this project was choosing the proper GPS module. The first GPS receiver
integrated a built-in patch antenna, but it didn't have the reliability that Marcelo
expected. He then tried another module that uses an active antenna, which significantly
improved the performance of the device.</p>
<p>Marcelo is now working on developing a digital TV receiver box. He is doing this by
connecting a USB ISBD-T TV stick on a BeagleBone Black. The product will be introduced
on public bus transportation in just a few weeks. </p>
<p>If you'd like to learn more about the Kuyurix bus speakers, feel free to contact Marcelo
via Twitter (@efectomiller).</p>
<p>Marcelo would like to give special thanks to the Department of Electronic Engineering
(UTN/FRH), Ing. Carlos González, and the professor Ing. Fidel Santos, for their assistance
and generosity in helping implement the Kuyurix speakers.</p>
<p><i>Want to chat with us about this project? Tweet us at <a href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg">@BeagleBoardOrg</a>!</i></p>
jkridner.wordpress.com22 Jul 2014 16:37:34 UTC2014-07-16-beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-barbothttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-07-16-beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-barbot/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-07-16-beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-barbot/<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight: Barbot</h1>
<p>Ringing a bell, throwing some cash, snapping your fingers and maybe even showing a
little extra cleavage have all been used to flag down bartenders. But Sean Carney,
creator of Barbot, can catch the attention of his bartender with a quick click of
the mouse and a remote Internet connection. </p>
<div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/iStYRiD.jpg" alt="Barbot" /></div>
<p>The Barbot is an Internet-controlled liquor-dispensing robot that can mix a drink
with up to five different ingredients. It offers a web interface that lets you know
what ingredients are available, generates a list of potential cocktails that can be
made with those ingredients, shows user ratings, and offers links to order a cocktail.
Once you order a cocktail, it gets to work and can make you a drink in seconds!</p>
<p>After inputting your drink order, the Sitara-processor-powered BeagleBone Black controls
three dual-H Bridge motor drivers, which are connected to peristaltic pumps that dispense
the correct liquids into your glass. BeagleBone Black is connected to a USB Wi-Fi adapter
so that you can order your drinks wirelessly. The computer runs Ubuntu 13.04 with Apache2,
MySQL and PHP, bind and dhcpd installed. Apache2, MySQL and PHP are used to host the
web interface, while bind and dhcpd create the Wi-Fi portal. The web server directly
controls the pumps by using PHP to write into the GPIO sysfs files. For additional
software information, visit the Barbot website.</p>
<p>The front panel of the Barbot hosts a number of switches and buttons, which the user
can use to manually override the machine for priming and purging the peristaltic pumps
as well as to manually dispense a beverage. Everything in the Barbot is powered by
a beefy 5-volt, 10-amp power supply. Take a look at this video demonstration to see
exactly how the process works:</p>
<div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/understep/11443998346/"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/FZZbQ3B.jpg" alt="Barbot Usage Video" /></a></div>
<p>Sean first had the idea for Barbot after being inspired by so many other similar
projects. He believes that building an alcohol dispensing device may become the new
developers' "rite of passage." </p>
<p>"It's an interesting genre of device since many people made one, but each creator
brings their own skills, knowledge and personal touch to the project," he said.</p>
<p>As an accountant by trade and education, Sean is completely self-taught when it comes
to technology.</p>
<p>"Based on my experience, if anyone sets their mind on completing a project like this,
there isn't any reason why they wouldn't be able to," he says. "It's amazing what
educational resources are available online these days."</p>
<p>This factor contributed to his selection of BeagleBone Black as his single-board computer.
BeagleBone Black is easy to learn and allowed him to focus on the creative aspects
of Barbot. It also has the capacity to operate many different I/O connections required
for Barbot to function correctly.</p>
<p>For his next project, Sean has his sights set on building "The World's Largest MP3
Player" by deconstructing a retro stereo and fitting it into a modern entertainment
center. </p>
<p>For developers like Sean, creativity can solve many of life's small issues. For Sean,
the solution was simple: if you want to avoid waiting for a drink, build your own
Barbot using BeagleBone Black! </p>
<p>For more information on Barbot, visit Sean's project website: http://www.seancarney.ca/projects/barbot. </p>
<p><i>Want to chat with us about this project? Tweet us at <a href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg">@BeagleBoardOrg</a>!</i></p>
jkridner.wordpress.com16 Jul 2014 15:32:40 UTC2014-07-02-beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-object-recordhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-07-02-beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-object-record/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-07-02-beaglebone-black-project-spotlight-object-record/<h1>Project Spotlight: Object Record</h1>
<p>Did you know that <i>The New York Times</i> writes itself? No, not the newspaper-but objects
at The New York Times R&D Lab have "thoughts" of their own that they journal for
our reading pleasure.</p>
<p><i>The New York Times</i> R&D Lab has created Object Record, a device that pairs objects
with sensors that perceive environmental conditions around it through touch, motion
and more. Object Record prints a constant monologue of its perceptions of and responses
to the changing input. The text of this monologue is printed out in ticker form on
a mini printer so that visitors can see not only the current "thoughts" of Object
Record, but its "memory" as well.</p>
<div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/AtkdGHr.jpg" alt="Object Record Ticker Tape" width="300px" /></div>
<p>Object Record is part of <i>The New York Times'</i> effort to discover and explore the poetic
and narrative potential of the Internet of Things (IoT). "As more of our objects and
environments become actuated, connected, and data-enabled, these enchanted objects
are developing the capacity to contain their own stories. An object can remember its
history, can understand how it's used, [and] can to talk to other objects around it
to understand its environment. As these capabilities evolve, objects no longer become
inert backdrops to our experiences, but active participants in our world that can
share stories about themselves and us," said Alexis Lloyd, Creative Director of the
R&D Lab at <i>The New York Times</i>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">Sitara processor</a>-based <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone Black">BeagleBone Black</a> is the main system controller for Object
Record. BeagleBone Black meets the lab's needs because of its low price, large feature
set and ability to run the Linux operating system. The large feature set enables prototyping
without worrying about network, memory and other constraints, and the ability to run
the Linux operating system allows developers to program in the language that works
best for them. Object Record code is written in Python, for example, and uses the
<a href="https://github.com/adafruit/adafruit-beaglebone-io-python">Adafruit BBIO library</a> to interface with the GPIOs.</p>
<div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/u9LOhbD.jpg" alt="Object Record on the job" width="300px" /></div>
<p>BeagleBone Black communicates information from various sensors on Object Record, including
a photocell, a TMP102 temperature sensor and a VCNL4000 proximity and ambient light
sensor, to a thermal printer via TTL serial, when sensor values cross a threshold
or when a certain amount of time elapses without a threshold event. This causes the
printer to issue a remark about its environment. Noah Feehan, Maker at The New York
Times R&D Lab, said, "The thermal printers presented [a] challenge: between the first
exploratory purchase many months ago and the purchases made for this installation,
the manufacturer made a few small, undocumented changes that delayed progress for
a few days."</p>
<p>Noah added that the BeagleBoard.org community, the <a href="https://www.adafruit.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=49">Adafruit forums</a> and <a href="https://github.com/alexanderhiam/PyBBIO/tree/master/bbio">PyBBIO</a> helped
his team emerge unscathed from this and many other challenges they faced while developing
Object Record.</p>
<p>Who ever thought we'd be getting our next The New York Times story from a BeagleBone
Black computer!? According to the R&D Lab, this is just one cool way we'll be engaging
with objects and the world around us in the future. Head to NYT Lab's blog to <a href="http://blog.nytlabs.com/2013/10/17/object-record-technical-brief/">read more about Object Record</a>
and the <a href="http://blog.nytlabs.com">other cool things</a> they are working on.</p>
<p><i>Want to chat with us about this project? Tweet us at <a href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg">@BeagleBoardOrg</a>!</i></p>
jkridner.wordpress.com02 Jul 2014 16:57:37 UTC2014-06-30-machinekit-meetuphttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-06-30-machinekit-meetup/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-06-30-machinekit-meetup/<h1>Machinekit Meetup</h1>
<a href="http://www.adafruit.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/IMG_1717.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120009" alt="IMG_1717" src="http://www.adafruit.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/IMG_1717.jpg" /></a>
<br />
<p>
I just got back from a <a title="Google Groups" href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/machinekit/LcLpKcLBPEw">meetup</a> of <a title="Machinekit • Moves. Controls. Things." href="http://machinekit.io">Machinekit</a> developers
hosted by <a title="Tormach Personal CNC (PCNC) | Small CNC Machines" href="http://www.tormach.com/">Tormach</a>, a maker of professional CNC machines.
<img style="float:right;width:40%;" src="http://static.squarespace.com/static/52c06c29e4b0330e4569449b/t/53a229d9e4b0c608f458a869/1403136502857/photo.JPG?format=1000w" />
There I got a glimpse into the future of personal CNC machines and 3D printers. Building on the long successful <a title="LinuxCNC.org" href="http://www.linuxcnc.org/">LinuxCNC</a> project, Machinekit has added support for additional platforms, including <a title="NEW PRODUCT - BeagleBone Black Rev C - 4GB Flash - Pre-installed Debian" href="http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2014/05/12/new-product-beaglebone-black-rev-c-4gb-flash-pre-installed-debian/">BeagleBone Black</a>, and additional real-time Linux strategies, including <a href="http://www.xenomai.org/index.php/Embedded_Device_Support">Xenomai</a> and stepper motor driving using the <a href="http://hackaday.com/2014/06/22/an-introduction-to-the-beaglebone-pru/">on-board PRU microcontrollers</a>.
</p>
<p>
What struck me is that software running on BeagleBone for controlling machines is the same as what CNC companies use in real (read expensive) CNC products... and it runs on some very remarkable (and personally affordable) machines in development I got glimpses of at Maker Faire Bay Area and elsewhere. Building incredible machines out of BeagleBone Black just got a whole lot easier and expect to see a lot more examples in the near future.
</p>
<p>
These examples include the <a href="http://makezine.com/2013/09/23/pocketnc-an-affordable-five-axis-cnc/">PocketNC</a> who recently
spoke about their testing with BeagleBone Black on their <a href="http://www.pocketnc.com/blog/2014/6/17/jdd1i979hl3mr5bfe358khggjdzmc4">blog</a>.
Type A Machines has also mentioned use of BeagleBone Black on their <a href="http://www.typeamachines.com/pages/faq">FAQ</a> regarding
their 2014 Series 1 3D Printer. And don't forget the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-12-10-project-spotlight-lasersaur/">Lasersaur open hardware laser cutter</a>.
</p>
<p>
All of the sessions at the meet-up were recorded on YouTube for those looking to catch up on the development of this project.
</p>
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4ObCqXilbrA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/412N5A-N8Fc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZehZ5bq4eu0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hyY1DoJ3mOA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
jkridner.wordpress.com30 Jun 2014 22:19:54 UTC2014-05-21-beaglebone-black-image-updatehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-05-21-beaglebone-black-image-update/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-05-21-beaglebone-black-image-update/<h1>BeagleBone Black Rev C image update</h1>
<p>
Just a couple of weeks in, we already have our first image update. It
doesn't include any major changes, but it should be noted that the LEDs
will <a href="http://datko.net/2014/05/17/bbb_flasher_change/">
now turn OFF
</a>
at the completion of the execution of the eMMC flasher as the board will
be shutdown. This avoids any cruft to build up on the uSD card that might
cause subsequent uses of that uSD card to flash other boards to be slowed
down as the journaling file system is explored. This isn't likely something
you need to think about if it sounds confusing----just realize the LEDs
will be OFF instead of ON at the end of the flashing operation.
</p>
<p>
Release notes are at <a href="http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#2014-05-14">
http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#2014-05-14
</a>
and but reports should be made at <a href="http://bugs.elinux.org/projects/debian-image-releases">
http://bugs.elinux.org/projects/debian-image-releases
</a>.
</p>
<p>
Continue the conversation <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/beagleboard/mdd-Y7QsE8M">
on the BeagleBoard Google Group...
</a>
</p>
jkridner.wordpress.com21 May 2014 18:54:10 UTC2014-05-13-arduino-tre-developer-programhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-05-13-arduino-tre-developer-program/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-05-13-arduino-tre-developer-program/<h1>Arduino announces Tre beta developer program</h1>
<img src="/static/images/ArduinoTRE-DE.jpg" style="float:right;width:30%;" />
<p>
Arduino Tre is the next-generation Arduino developed in
<a href="http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-03-beagleboardorg-collaborates-with-arduino/">
partnership with BeagleBoard.org</a> featuring Arduino ease-of-use
and the high-performance, low-power Linux capabilities of
BeagleBone. Read their announcement
<a href="http://blog.arduino.cc/2014/05/13/arduino-tre-developer-edition/">
here</a>.
</p>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>jkridner.wordpress.com14 May 2014 00:13:27 UTC2014-04-23-project_spotlight_soundscapehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-04-23-project_spotlight_soundscape/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-04-23-project_spotlight_soundscape/<h1>Turn Up The Volume On Your BeagleBone Black</h1>
<p>The SoundsCape adds a codec to the McASP bus for Line In, Line Out, and Headset (microphone in + headphone out). It also adds an HCI Bluetooth 4.0 Module for Bluetooth Audio (A2DP), BT Hands free (HFP), or SPP, with all Bluetooth profiles are supported by the cape.</p>
<a href="http://imgur.com/edb3Pg4"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/edb3Pg4.png" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a>
<p>(Image courtesy of Simple Media Networks)</p>
<p>We interviewed Cory Henderson, Electrical Engineer at Simple Media Networks about the SoundsCape and its features with the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone Black">BeagleBone Black</a>.</p>
<p>When asked about the inspiration for the SoundsCape, Cory filled us in. "Originally, we developed a Bluetooth add-on card for the BeagleBoard xM based on the Panasonic 1327 module. We moved over to the BeagleBone (and BBB) because of the ease of development it granted us. Since we no longer had the line in/line out that the xM had, we decided to integrate this into our cape as well. Now, you can route audio from the codec to BT through the BB, or use analog only, or BT only."</p>
"We had an existing design for the BeagleBoard xM. The transition to the BeagleBone happened for many reasons. Price, ease of development, community support, active development, and expandability all contributed to the decision."
<p>The SoundsCape also incorporates an Analog Devices ADAU1361 Codec and a Panasonic PAN1323 Bluetooth module (based on TI CC2567). Cory and team worked to maintain compatibility with other capes.</p>
<p>"Of all of the major capes available, I felt that the one most likely to be used with the SoundsCape was the LCD cape. The idea of the LCD combined with analog out will enable quick portable computing options. I hand listed out every connection used by each LCD cape (3", 4", and 7") and steered away from those pins. As a result, the analog section of the SoundsCape is fully compatible with each LCD cape, even the GPIO buttons. Unfortunately, the PAN1323 requires UART with CTS/RTS, and these pins are only accessible from the LCD pins needed by a display. These UART signals are run through a switch that is enabled with another GPIO pin so that they will not interfere with LCD signals."</p>
<p>For more information on the SoundsCape, you can visit the <a href="http://www.simplemedianetworks.com">Simple Media Networks website</a> (still under construction), or visit their <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/148675608/soundscape-analog-and-bluetooth-audio-for-beaglebo?ref=live">Kickstarter page</a> for more info. Cory also accepts email at <a href="mailto:cory@simplemedianetworks.com">cory@simplemedianetworks.com</a>.</p>
<p>So what's next on the bench for Simple Media Networks?</p>
<p>"We are pretty serious about audio and have developed high-end audio technology for a number of other companies. This Kickstarter campaign is our first effort to go our own direction and develop our own products. You can be sure that we pay close attention to audio performance and that there will be more great ideas to follow!"</p>
<p>Want to join the conversation about this cape? Try us on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg">@BeagleBoardOrg</a> or try <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Community/Forums">our forums</a></p>
<iframe width="480" height="360" src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/148675608/soundscape-analog-and-bluetooth-audio-for-beaglebo/widget/video.html" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"> </iframe>
jkridner.wordpress.com23 Apr 2014 21:08:44 UTC2014-04-22-google-summer-of-code-2014-projectshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-04-22-google-summer-of-code-2014-projects/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-04-22-google-summer-of-code-2014-projects/<h1>BeagleBoard.org Google Summer of Code 2014 projects</h1>
<p>
Yesterday, Google announced the project proposals accepted for this
year's Summer of Code! 7 of those projects are being mentored by
BeagleBoard.org. See the full list of approved projects at
<a href="https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/projects/list/google/gsoc2014">
https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/projects/list/google/gsoc2014
</a>
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<b>BeagleLogic</b> - Kumar Abhishek will be working on a logic analzer
utilizing the BeagleBone PRUs as a way to learn about embedded interfaces,
mentored by Matt Ranostay, Hunyue Yau and Charles Steinkuehler.
</li>
<li>
<b>Kernel MMC+DMA</b> - Saket Sinha will be working on improving the
MMC and DMA drivers in the Linux kernel, mentored by Joel Fernandes,
Greg Kroah-Hartman and others.
</li>
<li>
<b>BeaglePilot</b> - Victor Mayoral Vilches will be working on creating
a Linux-based autopilot for flying robots, mentored by Andrew Tridgell,
Hunyue Yau, Luis Gustavo Lira and others.
</li>
<li>
<b>Android remote display</b> - Praveen Kumar Pendyala will be working
on using an Android phone as an all-in-one user interface for BeagleBone,
mentored by Vladimir Pantelic and Vlad Ungureanu.
</li>
<li>
<b>BotSpeak</b> - Deepak Karki will be working on an interpreter
firmware that runs on the BeagleBone PRUs to simplify programming them,
mentored by Pantelis Antoniou, Hunyue Yau, Jason Kridner, Alex Hiam and
others.
</li>
<li>
<b>Bone101</b> - Diego Turcios will be working on improving the on-board tutorial
environment for BeagleBone with live-running interactive examples,
mentored by me (Jason Kridner), Steve French, David Scheltema and
Jongseuk Lee.
</li>
<li>
<b>PyBBIO</b> - Rekha Seethamraju will be working on improving the
PyBBIO Python library for BeagleBone for additional sensors, mentored
by Alex Hiam and Steve French.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Now is the bonding time between students and mentors and tomorrow at noon
US Eastern time is the first official meeting between students and mentors.
All of our student meetings are held in public and you are welcome to join
us and learn more about these exciting projects. We'll be asking the
students to create small introductory videos or screencasts introducing
their project to the world, making sure they are well aligned with their
mentors and understand their project goals. Stay tuned for those videos!
</p>jkridner.wordpress.com22 Apr 2014 16:39:57 UTC2014-04-13-dude-wheres-my-beaglebone-blackhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-04-13-dude-wheres-my-beaglebone-black/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-04-13-dude-wheres-my-beaglebone-black/<h1>Dude, where's my BeagleBone Black?</h1>
<p>
I hear that question a LOT. No, we
weren't sleeping, but sometimes it takes a minute for a plan to come
together. And don't you love it when a plan comes together?
</p><p>
Your BeagleBone Black is on the way and below are the whys and hows.
</p><p>
Buying a BeagleBone Black back around October last year was easy---and
then suddenly they were <a href="http://makezine.com/2014/04/03/beaglebone-black-is-back/">gone</a>. Having a big launch and then slowing
down to a more steady pace of production is what is normally expected.
Demand was strong, but distributors were showing a small amount of
stock and people were getting their boards on demand. Based on the
status, distributors had requested CircuitCo (the Richardson, Texas
based manufacturer of all official BeagleBoard.org boards) to provide
boards at a certain pace, and <a href="http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack#Board_Shipments">production</a> dropped from about 6,000 a
week at launch to around 3,000 a week.
</p><p>
BeagleBone Black, however, isn't your typical development board and word started
to spread about cool projects that could be made. Then came Radio Shack, filling their stores with <a href="http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=28805666">Make's Getting
Started with BeagleBone kit</a>. Then the Christmas rush. Then the Georgia
Tech massively open online course on <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/conrob">control of mobile robots</a> hosted
on Coursera. We had a couple of small production boosts, but haven't
been able to make any dent in the demand. Everyone is starting to find
out what BeagleBone Black can do, using it in their classes, hobbies,
prototypes---and products.
</p><p>
The BeagleBoard.org terms and conditions clearly say we
aren't responsible for the quality in end products. Nevertheless, the
quality speaks for itself and many people are choosing to simply drop
them into things beyond just a few prototype units. In practice, we'll
never know unless you try to return a bunch of boards at once for
repairs. Our desire is that people using the boards in products work
directly with a contract manufacturer or distributor to enable boards
builds to be planned out in time and with terms and conditions that
won't hurt BeagleBoard.org's ability to supply classrooms, hobbyists
and professionals building prototypes.
</p><p>
People building products aren't the only source of the high demand.
Some of our distribution partners, most notably <a href="http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack#Board_Shipments">Adafruit and Special
Computing</a>, put quantity limits of one board per customer
to help improve availability for individual makers. Even with the quantity
limit in place, I observed boards being sold off Adafruit's website
at a rate of about 2-3 PER MINUTE.
</p><p>
This all leads to the obvious conclusion: we need more capacity. To
accomplish this, we are taking a multiple prong approach of increasing
capacity at CircuitCo as well as bringing on an additional
manufacturer. These two prongs are summarized below.
</p>
<h2>Prong #1 - Ramping up production at CircuitCo</h2>
<p>
Ramping up production costs money. More test equipment is needed.
Orders on various parts must be accelerated. Additional staff must be
hired to run additional shifts. CircuitCo has been fantastic at taking
the risk for us, but the margins for BeagleBone Black aren't the
friendliest for them to take on these additional costs. At initial
launch, it is a benefit for them to get exposed to more customers for
their core business, complex circuit assembly and engineering
services, but shipping more of the exact same board isn't going to
give them a lot more exposure.
</p><p>
We're really close to shifting the distribution shipped on our boards
from Angstrom Distribution to Debian. Feedback from different people,
especially Adafruit, tells us this will improve usability in the
largest segments of our community. Angstrom Distribution is much more
customizable and is very friendly to professional developers looking
to tweak the most out of the system, but for many novices it
introduces a barrier to learning. Debian is the basis for Ubuntu,
includes ARM Cortex-A8 support in their mainline and is very familiar
to a huge population of developers. It also takes a bit more space on
the flash storage to provide the best user experience.
</p><p>
To provide the best experience of using Debian on BeagleBone Black, we
are connecting the switch-over to an increase in the on-board eMMC
flash storage from 2GB to 4GB, leaving more free room in which you can
work. The eMMC is faster and more reliable than micro-SD cards, so
this is adding a lot of value---and a little bit of cost.
</p><p>
These BeagleBone Blacks with Debian and 4GB eMMC will be called Rev C
and they will likely cost a bit more at most distributors. This extra
money is helping CircuitCo pay for the additional expense of the eMMC,
but also to cover costs for ramping production to higher-than-ever
rates.
</p><p>
With the additional capacity CircuitCo is bringing on, we expect to be
able to fill all end-user back-orders for the Rev B boards by early
May and shift all production to Rev C. With around 150,000 boards on
*distributor* back-orders, we'll be working with distributors to
quickly accept board shipments such that CircuitCo isn't sitting on
any units.
</p><p>
Come mid-May, you should be able to easily get your hands on a Rev C
board. Some distributors are already taking back-orders for them now.
We'll continue to try to push as many boards as we can through
distributors *not* taking back-orders as well to make sure there is a
continuity of supply.
</p>
<h2>Prong #2 - Enabling production of the BeagleBoard Compliant Element14
BeagleBone Black
</h2><p>
We've launched a <a href="http://beagleboard.org/logo">BeagleBoard Compliant logo
program</a>. Element14 is currently the exclusive
licensee of this logo program and has agreed to pay a small royalty to
the BeagleBoard.org Foundation as part of this license. It means that
we've verified they can produce quality clones of BeagleBone Black. It
will be up to them to maintain the quality. As with everything going
on around BeagleBoard.org, we'll be closely monitoring the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/discuss">public
BeagleBoard mailing list</a> for any and
all feedback.
</p><p>
Element14 is the parent company for Embest, who has been making
BeagleBone Black replicas for the China market since the initial
launch back in April of last year, so they have some experience
already. This move takes them beyond just China and will keep them in
more lock-step with software and hardware revisions coming from
BeagleBoard.org. To satisfy demand, they initially offered some of the
Embest-branded boards in the US market, but you'll see the future
BealgeBoard Compliant boards will be branded as "element14 BeagleBone
Black".
</p><p>
Element14 has a world-wide reach and a notable production capacity.
With all of the growing demand for BeagleBone Black, they will need
it. This is a huge win for open hardware! Continue the discussion on
the <a href="https://groups.google.com/d/msg/beagleboard/cwRP7JC7lM0/g6ZRDYUL-bcJ">
BeagleBoard mailing list
</a>.
</p><p>
--Jason
</p>jkridner.wordpress.com14 Apr 2014 05:08:37 UTC2014-04-07-project_spotlight_shield_iohttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-04-07-project_spotlight_shield_io/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-04-07-project_spotlight_shield_io/<h1>BeagleBone Black Project Spotlight: Shield I/O</h1>
<p>Some unlikely combinations just seem to work: Oreos and peanut butter, Dwight Schrute and Michael Scott and now Arduino and BeagleBone Black! </p>
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/e13pW4j.png" alt="Shield I/O+ beside the BeagleBone Black" />
<p>With the new Shield I/O, you can now use (almost) any Arduino shield with a BeagleBone Black. The Shield I/O, created by Andreas Behrend, adapts Arduino shields to be BeagleBone Black compatible, it doesn't matter if you're using 3.3V or 5V logic or up to 5V analog inputs. Precise resistor arrays divide the analog inputs and make it an option to measure up to 5V.</p>
<p>Shield I/O comes with dedicated level shifters for all 14 digital GPIO pins, PWM, I2C and SPI. Something interesting to note is that part of Shield I/O comes from an Atmel ATTiny that lets the user switch logic levels through software over I2C. </p>
<p>The device uses two TXB0108 level shifters for standard I/O lines and one TXS0102 shifting the I2C bus. Shield I/O also comes in a "Plus" version, which features a MCP23017 that is also accessible over the I2C bus.</p>
<p>Andreas saw a need for Shield I/O while working with microcontrollers that had to be rebooted to switch between different programs or adapt to new settings. He wanted to give developers an option for a ready-made Arduino Shield to use with a powerful embedded device, BeagleBone Black. Shield I/O makes it possible to communicate with Arduino shields without re-flashing or rebooting the whole system.</p>
<p>Andreas chose BeagleBone Black because of its power and compatibility.</p>
<p>"It's the most powerful embedded device out there with enough PWM, SPI, I²C, Timers, analog inputs, which can be muxed to fit the Arduino pin mapping including 2 PRUs to get high speed timing wherever it's needed," Behrend stated.</p>
<p>Andreas is a student currently employed by <a href="http://www.impressx.com/en-gb/home.aspx">impressx media</a>, who supports the Shield I/O. Additionally, Andreas has worked as a graphic designer and has run his own business. His next project is in the works and will be used in the healthcare industry - a tracker used by doctors to monitor a patient's overall health.</p>
<p>Just as each developer creates their own projects, the Shield I/O allows its user to employ their own creativity and make their own projects, with Shield I/O as its base.</p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NnAlJ1jPvFk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>For more information, or to donate to this project, visit Shield I/O's IndieGoGo site: <a href="http://igg.me/at/ShieldIO/x/3353417">http://igg.me/at/ShieldIO/x/3353417</a></p>
jkridner.wordpress.com07 Apr 2014 20:51:18 UTC2014-03-17-calling-beagleboardorg-gsoc-mentorshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-03-17-calling-beagleboardorg-gsoc-mentors/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-03-17-calling-beagleboardorg-gsoc-mentors/<h1>Calling all BeagleBoard.org GSoC Mentors</h1>
<p>We are getting great interest from students this year for <a href="http://beagleboard.org/gsoc">Google Summer of Code</a>, but we could use a bit of help from our community getting a great feedback on their proposals. I encourage you to engage with them on <a href="http://webchat.freenode.net?channels=beagle-gsoc">#beagle-gsoc</a> and the <a href="://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/beagleboard-gsoc">beagleboard-gsoc mailing list</a> even if you don't plan to be a mentor, simply to make the proposals better for the community.</p>
<p>If you do plan to be a mentor, you are required to <a href="https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/connection/pick/google/gsoc2014">sign-up on Melange</a> and make a connection to the BeagleBoard.org group. I will be contacting prospective mentors to verify their commitment and history of contributions to the community. Don't be intimidated by that as there are many ways to contribute.</p>
<p>Student applications freeze on March 21, so there is just a bit of time to close with them any ideas you have on making their applications better. Most important to me for approving any proposal will be to have engaged mentors who believe the student's proposal can be executed and adds value to the community. Approved mentors will provide votes for the proposals to help rank the proposals by April 7.</p>
<p>Weekly IRC meetings on <a href="http://webchat.freenode.net?channels=beagle-gsoc">#beagle-gsoc</a> will start this Wednesday at 1PM New York time.</p>
<p>
The current BeagleBoard.org GSoC mentors are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Joel Fernandes</li>
<li>Alexander Haim</li>
<li>Andrew Tridgell</li>
<li>Kevin Hester</li>
<li>Greg Kroah-Hartman</li>
<li>Hunyue Yau</li>
<li>Lorenz Meier</li>
<li>Matt Ranostay</li>
<li>Vlad Victor</li>
<li>Vladimir Pantelic</li>
<li>Jason Kridner</li>
</ul>
<p>Students are anxious to make a connection and execute on *your* project ideas, so I hope you will decide to be an active participant in improving what can be done with open source!</p>
<p>
Best Regards,<br />
Jason Kridner<br />
GSoC Administrator for BeagleBoard.org
</p>jkridner.wordpress.com17 Mar 2014 15:46:13 UTC2014-03-05-debian-beta-releasedhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-03-05-debian-beta-released/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-03-05-debian-beta-released/<h1>Debian Beta images have been released</h1>
<p>As posted earlier today <a href="https://groups.google.com/d/msg/beagleboard/VRqGZbXBK1Q/8wofUZyTyUsJ">on the BeagleBoard.org mailing list,</a> the latest BeagleBone Debian beta images are now posted for broader testing at:<br />
<a href="http://beagleboard.org/latest-images/">http://beagleboard.org/latest-images/</a></p>
<p>If you've <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Getting%20Started#update">upgraded the firmware on your BeagleBone or BeagleBone Black</a> in the past, the experience will be quite similar, but you might find the eMMC flashing times a bit faster (~15 minutes rather than ~45 minutes) due to less post-installation processing. Using the 2GB uSD card image also flashes a bit faster and can be resized to whatever your uSD card size is using some scripts under /opt/scripts/tools.</p>
<p>Many, many thanks to Robert Nelson, Rob Rittman, Dave Anders, Cody Lacey, the Cloud9 IDE team and so many others in getting us this far.</p>
<p>Please take the time to give a detailed look over this image and report any issues to the bug tracker on elinux.org:<br />
<a href="http://bugs.elinux.org/projects/debian-image-releases">http://bugs.elinux.org/projects/debian-image-releases</a></p>
<p>While plugged in over USB, you'll see the familiar BEAGLE_BONE drive with START.htm to tell you how to get the drivers configured if you haven't already done so:</p>
<img width="80%" src="http://beagleboard.org/static/uploads/Google%20ChromeScreenSnapz095.png" />
<p>Clicking the link or visiting http://192.168.7.2, you'll see the familiar on-board served documentation:</p>
<img width="80%" src="http://beagleboard.org/static/uploads/Google%20ChromeScreenSnapz094.png" />
<p>I've introduced a few bugs to the documentation (http://github.com/beaglebone/bone101 and http://beagleboard.github.io/bone101), so expect to find a lot of issues there. Patches are welcome as are notes in the bug tracker to make sure I don't miss dotting any i's or crossing any t's. This is your chance to try to get some documentation into the system you'd like to see. I felt it was pretty safe to save the documentation as an in-beta item because it shouldn't impact functionality.</p>
<p>One of the biggest new features you'll see is when you click on the Cloud9 IDE link:</p>
<img width="80%" src="http://beagleboard.org/static/uploads/Google%20ChromeScreenSnapz096.png" />
<p>This is a pre-open-source-beta-only release of version 3 of their IDE. Down at the bottom of the Cloud9 IDE you'll see a new terminal window that runs a full 'tmux' session. You can open up a bunch of these and it makes logging into the board and executing command-line operations *super* simple.</p>
<p>Cloud9 IDE version 3 now includes support for Python and the Adafruit_BBIO library is included in these Debian images. That means you can simply paste in your Python code and hit the "run" button, without any additional download. I checked this out myself by doing a quick LED blink using the Adafruit tutorial (<a href="http://learn.adafruit.com/blinking-an-led-with-beaglebone-black/writing-a-program">http://learn.adafruit.com/blinking-an-led-with-beaglebone-black/writing-a-program</a>):</p>
<img width="80%" src="http://beagleboard.org/static/uploads/Google%20ChromeScreenSnapz097.png" />
<p>You should also note that the /var/lib/cloud9 directory now contains a git clone of that bone101 repo (http://github.com/beagleboard/bone101), so you can start using the Cloud9 IDE to edit the content live. What I recommend is creating your own fork of the repo and sending me pull requests of any changes you'd like to see.</p>
<p>You can also edit C/C++ code in the Cloud9 IDE, but no 'builder' or 'runner' plug-ins are provided. You will, however, find the <a href="http://elinux.org/Userspace_Arduino">Userspace-Arduino</a> code in /opt/source/Userspace-Arduino. Here's a quick little exercise you can do to blink LED0:</p>
<pre>
root@beaglebone# cd /opt/source/Userspace-Arduino/arduino-makefile/examples/Blink
root@beaglebone# perl -i -pe 's/13/14/g' Blink.ino
root@beaglebone# make
root@beaglebone# ./build-userspace/Blink.elf
</pre>
<p>For more advanced C/C++ developers, future releases should include <a href="https://github.com/jackmitch/libsoc">https://github.com/jackmitch/libsoc.</a></p>
<p>Those familiar with Linux will also note that the init system is 'systemd', which has been helpful in providing reasonable boot times. If you are looking for the journal, you can explore it using 'systemd-journalctl'.</p>
<p>Drivers and firmware for many common USB WiFi dongles are included, so be sure to report any that you find missing. An issue with the driver for the Logic Supply UWN200 has already been resolved since the release[<a href="https://groups.google.com/d/msg/beagleboard/VRqGZbXBK1Q/M09l6jdXLYMJ">**</a>]. To test it out myself, I uncommented and edited the wlan0 entry in /etc/network/interfaces (including replacing wlan0 with ra0), shutdown, plugged in the adapter and powered up the board again. I also was able to plug in a TL-WN822N adapter I bought from Amazon and got it working right away.</p>
<p>This is just a quick intro to some of the experience and what we are focused on fine tuning. Please take the time to check it out and let us know about your experience. I hope you enjoy it!</p>jkridner.wordpress.com06 Mar 2014 03:29:53 UTC2014-02-25-project-spotlight-fish-on-wheelshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-02-25-project-spotlight-fish-on-wheels/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-02-25-project-spotlight-fish-on-wheels/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBoard-xM project spotlight:<br>Fish on Wheels </h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
Don’t drink and drive, unless you are the driver of today’s
featured Beagle project. That is, unless you are... a fish!
</p>
<p>
Goldfish can now explore the world beyond the limits of the tank with
Fish on Wheels, a robotic car from Studio diip, a design shop in the
Netherlands. Fish on Wheels has made a splash (pun intended!) in
publications from Discovery and Popular Science to Hackaday and
Geek.com, receiving popular acclaim from people who wanted their own
goldfish at home to be able to put the pedal to the metal.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/N5minc0.png" HEIGHT=360 WIDTH=640</p><p>Image credit: Studio diip
</p>
<p>
As the goldfish swims, a Logitech C910 webcam stationed overhead
communicates with computer vision software running on a
<a href="http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/arm/sitara_arm_cortex_a_processor/overview.page">
Sitara-processor</a>-powered <a href="/Products/BeagleBoard-xM">
BeagleBoard-xM</a> computer. Using the
contrast of the fish with the bottom of the fish tank, the computer
is able to determine which direction the fish is swimming.
BeagleBoard-xM then talks to the chassis, powered by a Seed Hercules
Robot platform with Arduino, to tell it to drive in the direction
that the fish is swimming. Please note, seatbelts are not included,
so tell your goldfish to avoid the stairs!
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/jaYiSpO.jpg" HEIGHT=360 WIDTH=640</p><p>Image credit: Studio diip
</p>
<p>
“We thought of developing Fish on Wheels because we wanted to have
something to showcase the possibilities of computer vision
technology. We then came to the idea that with computer vision,
even animals would be able to control devices. The best way to show
this was to enable fish to drive their own aquarium wherever they
want to go,” said Thomas de Wolf, business manager and co-founder
of Studio diip.
</p>
<p>
<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/YbNmL6hSNKw?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/YbNmL6hSNKw?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
</p><p>
While the above video shows Fish on Wheels as a smooth operation,
Thomas says that it was not always so. The team faced a challenge in
being able to smoothly control the motors of the robot platform so
that water wouldn’t spill over the edge of the aquarium, leaving
Goldie out to dry. They tested various options with the
BeagleBoard-xM and were eventually able to fine-tune the device.
</p>
<p>
Thomas and his teams had several other reasons for choosing
BeagleBoard-xM for Fish on Wheels. “It offered the flexibility to
quickly create a working solution that gets the job done. It can
run on a battery for some time so that the whole device can run
autonomously,” said Thomas. The Studio diip team was also happy
that the BeagleBoard-xM can run Linux and is powerful enough for
computer vision tasks.
</p>
<p>
While the Fish on Wheels is a fantastic project, the Studio diip
team has bigger fish to fry! They are currently working on
enhancing a laser cutter with computer vision to make it possible
for anyone to operate the machine by simply sketching their idea.
For more information about the upcoming laser cutter, Fish on
Wheels, and other intelligent imaging projects from Studio diip,
check out <a href="http://www.studiodiip.com/">www.studiodiip.com</a>
or email the team at <a href="mailto:info@studiodiip.com">info@studiodiip.com</a>.
</p>
<p>
<i>Want to chat with us about this project?
Tweet us at <a href="http://twitter.com/beagleboardorg">@BeagleBoardOrg</a>!</i>
<p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com05 Mar 2014 20:08:14 UTC2014-02-25-beagleboardorg-mentoring-google-summer-of-codehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-02-25-beagleboardorg-mentoring-google-summer-of-code/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-02-25-beagleboardorg-mentoring-google-summer-of-code/<h1>BeagleBoard.org Mentoring Google Summer of Code</h1>
<a href="https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2014"><img src="http://beagleboard.org/static/uploads/GoogleSummer_2014logo_avatar.png" width="200" align="right"/></a>
<p>
BeagleBoard.org has once again been selected as a mentoring organization
for Google Summer of Code! This means it is time for students and potential
mentors to check out
the information on the <a href="https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2014">
program home page
</a> to find out about the program in general and discover the other
organizations participating in mentorship this year. Once familiar with the
program, you should check out the ideas pages for various organizations,
including <a href="http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas">the BeagleBoard.org
ideas page.</a>
</p>
<p>
Once you feel like you have a bit of inspiration, get connected to some mentors
who might help you out. You will find several related to BeagleBoard.org
<a href="http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=beagle-gsoc">hanging out on IRC
on channel #beagle-gsoc.</a> You will also need to join the <a
href="http://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/beagleboard-gsoc">BeagleBoard GSoC
Google Group.</a> Student project proposals will be accepted March 10-21
and no late proposals will be accepted. The proposals likely to be accepted
will be ones where the student has worked closely with mentors to craft it
out in a way there is a mutally agreed liklihood of success as well as value
for the community.
</p>
<p>
Last year, BeagleBoard.org successfully mentored 5 projects including Userspace
Arduino that brought sketches to Linux, brought Robot Operating System to
new Linux distributions, improved upstream ADC IIO support, brought I2C
support to Minix and enabled booting and flashing boards from Android phones.
Take just a few minutes to watch
the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzq-XagGEZrfmxnxNvBozIxIBv-leh-o-">project videos</a>.
</p>
<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLzq-XagGEZrfmxnxNvBozIxIBv-leh-o-" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>jkridner.wordpress.com25 Feb 2014 14:46:23 UTC2014-02-18-project-spotlight-logi-bonehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-02-18-project-spotlight-logi-bone/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-02-18-project-spotlight-logi-bone/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>LOGi-Bone </h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
As working professionals, Michael Jones, Jonathan Piat and their
team at Valent F(x) know that interfacing with FPGA boards can be a
clunky and cumbersome process. With these complexities of electronic
design in mind, they strove to devise a more user-friendly,
plug-and-play method to, as Michael put it, “make even students and
hobbyists smile.”
</p>
<p>
As a result, the folks at Valent F(x) developed the LOGi family of
FPGA development boards. According to Michael, these boards “were
created with a dual-use purpose: to limit the sharp learning curve
associated with FPGA development and to enable the unification of
existing hardware interfaces and open-source development platforms,”
including our own <a href="http://www.beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">BeagleBone Black</a>.
Valent F(x) claims that they help their customers overcome various
challenges by developing open-source hardware that is easy to use,
program and interface with various existing hardware peripherals.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/cMm5cTU.jpg" HEIGHT=350 WIDTH=490</p><p>Image credit: Valent F(x)
</p>
<p>
The LOGi-Bone is a LOGi FPGA board that recently met with great
success on Kickstarter. The heart of the LOGi-Bone—like all of the
other LOGi-boards—is a Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA. The LOGi-Bone has two
rows of connectors on the underside of the FPGA board that allow
users to interface with the 2x46 headers on BeagleBone Black,
based on TI’s <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">
Sitara AM335x processor</a>. The board is also compatible with the
original <a href="http://www.beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone">BeagleBone</a>.
</p>
<p>
The main controller is a Mac Mini mounted in a custom arcade
console. Every frame of video is rendered on this console and
streamed over Wi-Fi to reduce the number of wires needed—normal
wires don’t work for a POV display because they would get tangled
up from all of the spinning. Because of this challenge, all of the
brains required to run the display are mounted to the spinning part
and spin along with the display.
</p>
<p>
Other LOGi-Bone features include:<br>
&#9679; 256 Mb SDRAM <br>
&#9679; 2x LEDs<br>
&#9679; 2x push buttons<br>
&#9679; 2x DIP switches <br>
&#9679; 1 high-bandwidth SATA connector expansion port<br>
&#9679; 2x Digilent Inc. PMOD expansion ports supporting 59+ plug-and-play hardware modules <br>
&#9679; 1x Arduino-compatible headers connected to the FPGA pins (3.3V only); supports more than 200+ Arduino Shield modules<br>
&#9679; Optional GPMC, SPI or I2C port access from the BeagleBone Black<br>
&#9679; 10x length-tuned LVDS pairs <br>
&#9679; Bit-stream-loading interface connected to the host processor; optional bitstream FPGA self-loading from onboard Flash <br>
</p>
<p>
“The LOGi-Bone adds FPGA flexibility and capability to the
BeagleBone, allowing it to be easily morphed into endless digital
applications,” said Michael. In fact, the Valent F(x) team has
already created applications for the LOGi-Bone, including a Bitcoin
miner, machine vision and autonomous vehicle and robotic
controllers. All applications are open source and available on the
<a href="https://github.com/fpga-logi">LOGi repository</a>. You can
also find videos of some their current applications on the
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDt1_Vd3ECYYhVIT1fM06Nw">
LOGi YouTube channel</a>.
</p>
<p>
Valent F(x) says that they are all about user collaboration and
hope to create a community infrastructure that allows users to work
together to create unique and interesting projects. Generally,
users have strengths in one of the many facets involved in
electronics, thus making it difficult to create and finish a
project that requires a wide range of electronic functionality.
Enabling multiples users with varying skills to work together
allows multi-faceted projects to be created, with each user adding
their respective strengths to the project. Valent F(x) would love
to hear from you to know what kind of projects and applications you
would like to see created and get involved in.
</p>
<p>
Now that their Kickstarter is closed, the Valent F(x) team will
start manufacturing boards and will start fulfilling orders later
this year. Visit <a href="http://www.valentfx.com/">Valent F(x)’s site</a>
for more information on these boards or to order one of your own!
</p>
<p>
<p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com18 Feb 2014 17:42:40 UTC2014-02-11-project-spotlight-ece-christmas-lightshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-02-11-project-spotlight-ece-christmas-lights/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-02-11-project-spotlight-ece-christmas-lights/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>Rose-Hulman ECE Christmas lights</h1>
<p>
Imagine having the ability to personalize your Christmas tree
lights. When the holiday is approaching and it’s time for your
family tradition of picking a tree, baking cookies, and putting on
the garland, lights, ornaments, and big star on top, it seems like
there is always something wrong with the lights! A few bulbs have
gone out, some are missing, and you find yourself scrambling around
trying to find replacements to put in to make sure your tree still
shines bright next holiday season.
</p>
<p>
A holiday humbug situation like this is just what Mark Yoder and the
students in his electrical and computer engineering (ECE) class at
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology were trying to avoid when they
turned a string of Adafruit digital RGB LEDs into lights for the
department Christmas tree.
</p>
<p>
Mark’s students created a kernel driver, Blockly interface, and the
necessary programs to control the LED string. With the collaborative
work of Mark and his students, the ECE Christmas tree lights were
born.
</p>
<p>
The Adafruit digital RGB LED strings, with the help of the <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">
Sitara-processor</a>-powered<a href="http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">
BeagleBone Black</a> open-source computer, make it possible to set each LED
to a color and intensity. The ECE Christmas tree lights are two
five-meter Adafruit strings interfaced to the BeagleBone Black computer.
</p>
<p>
Adafruit LED strings carry 32 RGB LEDs per meter, and allow each
LED to be programmed and controlled individually. The strings are
weatherproof and easily able to be cut with some wire cutters. The
ECE Christmas tree light strings are powered at 3.3V from BeagleBone
Black, which is powered with a 5V external supply.
</p>
<p>
BeagleBone Black was chosen to work with the lights because it is
inexpensive and capable of an assortment of tasks at high
performance. By putting it with the Adafruit LED strings, fun and
unique light displays can be made! You can see these lights in
action:
</p><p>
<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/4BbRNn3VadA?hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/4BbRNn3VadA?hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
</p>
<p>
“One of my favorite displays starts an LED at the bottom of the
string and sequences it up to the top,” Mark said. “It starts a dim
red and as it moves along, it gets brighter and brighter. The LED
represents someone sledding and they are getting hotter and hotter
as they climb the hill. One of these sledders is started every two
seconds and the whole collection is a sledding party. Once they
reach the top, they turn around and sled down, getting bluer and
bluer and colder as they go.”
</p>
<p>
Even though the tree has been taken down until next Christmas,
students have requested to keep the LEDs on display to play with on
study breaks and create new light patterns.
</p>
<p>
Mark has different pattern examples written in C, python, shell
scripts, and JavaScript. A challenge he faces is finding enough
time to play with the LED string. “It doesn’t take long to
implement a new pattern, but once you get it going you think of
other, cooler, things to do.” </p>
<p>
While the holidays have already passed this season, Yoder is working
on implementing a TI SimpleLink™ Bluetooth low energy CC2541-based
<a href="http://www.ti.com/con-lprg-beagleblog-es">SensorTag kit</a>
for next Christmas. The SensorTag is able to
communicate with the BeagleBone Black, so the lights respond when
you move the SensorTag around. He also is working to have the lights
respond to audio. The louder the sound, the more LEDs will light up.
</p><p>
Mark’s next endeavor with the ECE Christmas Tree Lights is to connect
them to a TI LaunchPad so he can control the LEDs.
</p><p>
Bring the light back to your Christmas spirit by customizing your own
Christmas lights! The course github is available <a href="https://github.com/MarkAYoder/BeagleBoard-exercises/tree/master/LEDstring">
here</a>.
</p><p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com11 Feb 2014 17:41:45 UTC2014-02-03-project-spotlight-robotics-capehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-02-03-project-spotlight-robotics-cape/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-02-03-project-spotlight-robotics-cape/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>Robotics Cape by Strawson Design</h1>
<p>
Inspiration is not an easy thing to come by, and no one can predict
when it will strike. The light bulb suddenly flashes on overhead,
and the gears inside your brain start to turn. The excitement of
the “Ah hah!” moment is great, but often short lived when the
realization of the logistics come into play.
</p>
<p>
Engineers often find themselves in this situation when a new idea
for a robot pops into their head, but then there is the complicated
process of crafting the internal hardware and writing the software
to actually make it work. James Strawson, PhD student at the
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and founder of Strawson
Design, grew tired of having to create new circuits for every new
robot that he worked on, so he unified his current and future
robotics projects under one hardware and software platform, thus
creating the Robotics Cape.
</p><p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/1gaLmaX.png" WIDTH=691 HEIGHT=386</p><p>
Robotics Cape by Strawson Design; image credit: Strawson Design
</p>
<p>
The Robotics Cape works with the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">
BeagleBone Black</a>, powered by a TI <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">
Sitara processor</a>, to make a mobile robotics platform. It includes
2-cell lithium battery charging, protection and monitoring circuitry
to make sure the robot is always charged and ready to play with.
The Robotics Cape also provides plug-and-play connectors to easily
interface with common components so you can build your robot without
soldering or messy wiring. It was obvious for James to choose
BeagleBone Black when picking a Linux development board. Strawson
said, “First and foremost, robotics projects typically require the
control board to interface with custom circuitry. BeagleBone Black
provides an enormous array of hardware interface pins for functions
such as GPIO, PWM, eQEP, I2C, etc., which is exactly what tinkerers
and prototypers need. BeagleBone Black is also a fantastically neat
and tidy package that is ideal for tiny robots.”
</p>
<p>
When creating the cape, Strawson picked the features he felt would apply
to the largest number of applications. The cape offers: <p></p>
• 9-axis IMU: Accelerometer, gyro, magnetometer<br>
• 6 PWM connectors to power servos or brushless ESCs<br>
• Power your BeagleBone with 5V 2A switching voltage regulator from
12v input or battery pack<br>
• 2 user-accessible buttons and 2 LEDs to test GPIO functionality
and to test PRU GPIO<br>
• 2-cell lithium cell balancer and overvoltage protector<br>
• H-bridges to drive 6 DC motors (each 1.2A continuous, 3.2A peak)<br>
• Plug-and-play connection supported:<br>
o I2C, UART, SPI<br>
o Range/gesture sensors<br>
o Serial GPS module<br>
o Spektrum™ RC receiver<br>
o Quadrature encoder inputs
</p>
<p>
Strawson first used the Robotics Cape to teach a senior embedded
controls course at UCSD. Each student built their own BeagleMIP
balancing robot based on the cape and was taught to design and
implement a discrete-time controller to make the robot balance
upright and drive. Texas Instruments’ University Program donated
BeagleBone Black computers to UCSD to enable such a wonderful
project. “We learned a lot about implementing dynamic control
systems in a Linux environment. I was pleased to teach fellow
mechanical engineers how to dive into the world of embedded
programming and circuit design,” Strawson said.
</p><p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/IXsA81J.png" WIDTH=378 HEIGHT=461 </p><p>
BeagleMIP balancing robot; image credit: Strawson Design
</p>
<p>
Strawson is working on a few refinements on the board layout and
connectivity before bringing the Robotics Cape to market. He also
looks forward to spending more time developing control systems with
BeagleBone Black. He is testing a quadrotor controller based on the
BeagleBone Black as well as a Robotics Cape Combination designed to
be cheap and easy to repair while offering the networking
capability and processing power of BeagleBone Black.
</p><p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/4XlOQOA.jpg" WIDTH=415 HEIGHT=553 </p><p>
James Strawson demoing the BeagleMIP at CES 2014
</p>
<p>
The Robotics Cape is still a work in progress but will be available
for sale in the coming months. For updated information on the
Robotics Cape, visit Strawson Design’s website at <a href="http://www.strawsondesign.com">
www.strawsondesign.com</a>.
</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com03 Feb 2014 23:08:50 UTC2014-01-29-project-spotlight-beedomehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-01-29-project-spotlight-beedome/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-01-29-project-spotlight-beedome/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>The BeeDome</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
ForestDew Apiaries, located in Ottawa, Ontario, has been keeping,
testing and trying 20 strains of bees from all over the world for
13 years.
</p>
<p>
They pride themselves on coming up with innovative products and
solutions in the bee industry, and their BeeDome is definitely one
of these solutions.
</p>
<p>
The BeeDome is a system to control the environment of indoor
nucleus colonies (nucs) where small honey bees are kept indoors
over the winter months. The BeeDome extends the bee breading season
so ForestDew can offer strong, healthy nucs to beekeepers early in
the spring at reasonable prices to replace bees lost over winter.
This is especially important in northern climates where winter
creeps in early. After more than five years of research and
prototyping, ForestDew Aparies is now live trialing the BeeDome.
ForestDew Apiaries puts its nucs into the BeeDome in later November
for the winter, where they are kept in environmental conditions
that ensure minimal food store consumption. ForestDew Apiaries
credits the BeeDome for helping it deliver reasonable priced,
quality bees to its customers.
</p>
<p>
<table>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://imgur.com/BKrp5Sn.jpg" WIDTH=427 HEIGHT=569 alt="1" /></td>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/saq8ISo.jpg" Width=427 Height=569 alt="2"/></td>
</tr>
</table> <p></p>
Image credit: ForestDew Apiaries
</p>
<p>
The BeeDome is a computerized system based on the <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">
Sitara-processor</a>-powered <a href="http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">BeagleBone Black computer</a>
as well as a specially designed
“cape” plug-in board. BeagleBone Black is connected to the Internet,
and stats are uploaded periodically to a website so that the company
can closely monitor the nucs. The BeeDome also integrates GE
Telaire T6613/T6615 and MG811 sensors to monitor the CO2 level;
DS18B20 sensors to monitor temperature; DH22 sensors to monitor
humidity and temperature; and Sharp COM-10636 SSR devices to
control 120V devices.
</p>
<p>
“Bee” sure to check out <a href="http://www.forestdewapiaries.com/the-beedome/">
ForestDew Apiaries’ website </a> for more information on this
“unbeelievable” project!
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com30 Jan 2014 16:59:10 UTC2014-01-21-project-spotlight-petcubehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-01-21-project-spotlight-petcube/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-01-21-project-spotlight-petcube/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>Petcube</h1>
<p>
As Alex Neskin slipped out the front door for work, he couldn’t
help but feel the heartache as he heard the barks and cries from
his Chihuahua, Rocky. It was the same routine every day. He would
try to sneak out the door attempting to be unnoticed by Rocky, but
every time the door would shut, the barking and crying would start.
The separation anxiety not only took a toll on him and Rocky, but
even the neighbors when they had to deal with the unnerving sound
of a barking dog. This separation anxiety is what led Alex to
create Petcube.
</p>
<p>
<table>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/DShRbXM.jpg" WIDTH=428 HEIGHT=285 alt="1" /></td>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Sgr781i.jpg" Width=425 Height=285 alt="2"/></td>
</tr>
</table> </P><p>
</p>
<p>
Petcube is a gadget that lets you watch, talk and play laser games
with your pet through a mobile application, anytime, anywhere. Alex
came up with the design of a movable webcam combined with a laser so
he could see his best friend while he controlled the laser (Rocky’s
favorite toy!) to entertain him.
</p>
<p>
The aesthetic design of Petcube is a 10x10x10 aluminum and glass
cube. Its internal hardware contains a wide angle camera, laser
diode, two servo motors to control it, microphone and speakers. The
camera allows you to take pictures and videos and share them with
friends all while live video streaming to your phone. The
microphone lets you hear your pet, and the speakers enable you to
call them over.
</p>
<p>
Petcube uses the <a href="http://www.beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">
BeagleBone Black computer</a>, based on a TI <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">
Sitara processor</a>, with a custom cape to control all peripherals. Alex
chose the BeagleBone Black computer for the Petcube because of its
open schematics that allowed him to create a custom board with a
unique shape and design. “Everything works pretty much easy and
fast out of the box,” said Alex.
</p>
<p>
The live video streaming is the most intriguing attribute of the
Petcube. According to Alex, the real-time interaction not only puts
pet owners at ease, but also keeps pets entertained and out of
trouble. Alex also plans to put a number of Petcubes in animal
shelters. Petcube has started partnering with U.S. shelters in
order to boost adoption rates. There are an estimated 5 million
pets that enter shelters every year, and Petcube hopes to help find
homes for these homeless animals. Public streaming will allow
people to see and play with homeless dogs and cats. This will not
only improve the emotional and physical health of the homeless
animals, but could also lead to more adoptions by giving more
exposure to the animals.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/0g8oxiI.jpg" WIDTH=520 HEIGHT=325
</p>
<p>
One thing is clear after talking to Alex: Petcube is committed to
improving the lives of pets and their parents with technology. They plan
to expand their product line with other high-tech pet accessories.
They are planning on integrating Petcube with collars and feeders,
allowing pets to have scheduled feeding times with portion control.
</p>
<p>
<p></p><p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com30 Jan 2014 16:58:09 UTC2014-01-14-project-spotlight-volumiohttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-01-14-project-spotlight-volumio/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-01-14-project-spotlight-volumio/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>Volumio</h1>
<p>
What is your go-to activity when you can’t sleep? For some it’s
reading a book or counting sheep, but for music and technology
enthusiast Michelangelo Guarise, it’s Volumio.
</p>
<p>
Volumio is a free and open-source Linux Audiophile music player for
embedded computers that, when paired with the <a href="http://www.ti.com/pro-arm-bborgblog-e2e-lp">
Sitara-processor</a>-powered
<a href="http://www.beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black">BeagleBone Black</a>,
can transform an entire building into a connected
audio center. Inspired by his passion for music, Guarise worked
tirelessly on Volumio with the help of users worldwide.
</p>
<p>
“What you have here is the result of sleepless coding nights,
precious feedback from our users, and a pure, intense, visceral
passion for music and technology,” Guarise said.
</p>
<p>
In fact, Guarise cites “passion” as the only thing users need to
have to be able to use Volumio. It can be downloaded for free and
comes ready to start playing audio files immediately.
</p>
<p>
After the initial download, Volumio has to be flashed onto an SD
card and connected through a network. Volumio can be downloaded
with Windows, Macintosh or Linux systems. From there, users can go
to volumio.local/ and use the WebUi to start listening.
</p>
<p>
Volumio is equipped to play all music—FLAC, MP3, WAV, AAC, ALAC and
Musepack files are all compatible, in addition to streaming
Internet radio. It can be controlled via WebUi from a smartphone,
tablet or computer. BeagleBone Black supports the program well
because of its large expandability and affordable price.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/xj8C7vC.png" WIDTH=840 HEIGHT=270
</p>
<p>
Guarise wants Volumio users to be able to sit back, relax and
listen to their favorite tunes from anywhere in their house.
Multiple BeagleBone Black platforms can be connected, allowing
users to select from which device the music will be flowing.
Simultaneous playback mode is going to be available soon, giving
developers the chance to build an open-source multi-room audio
system.
</p>
<p>
He gives credit to his fellow music and technology gurus who have
worked on the open-source code. "This project relies also on tons
of good code made by developers all around the world. What we did
was just put it all together and make it act as one ecosystem,”
Guarise said.
</p>
<p>
Volumio hosts a blog and forum on its website for anyone working on
the code and improving the project. It is always being updated to
give users the best version.
</p>
<p>
Even though Guarise is studying psychology, he works endlessly with
music. He has a mix of valve and digital amplifiers that he built
himself during a few sleepless nights. His passion for music and
technology inspires him to work on projects like Volumio and
struggle to turn his volume down.
</p>
<p>
Complete Volumio features list:<br>
- Ready to play: Flash it and you’re ready<br>
- Audiophile Quality: Bit-perfect playback<br>
- FLAC, WAV, MP3, AAC, ALAC, PLS support<br>
- Music libraries on Samba, NFS and USB drives<br>
- Webradios support out of the box<br>
- Control it via integrated Webui with PC, smartphone, tablet<br>
- AirPlay capability<br>
- Ramplay support<br>
- DSD native playback<br>
- Multiroom playback via Android App<br>
- Output playback device selection<br>
- Audio out via HDMI, USB, Analog Jack, S/PDIF, I2S <br>
- Compatible with all UAC2 compliant USB DACs<br>
- Wireless Nnetwork configuration<br>
- Various resampling options, up to 32bit/384khrtz<br>
</p>
<p>
For more information on Volumio or to download it, visit
<a href="http://volumio.org">http://volumio.org/</a>.
</p>
<p>
<p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com30 Jan 2014 16:54:09 UTC2014-01-14-beagleboardorg-and-kickstarter-2013http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-01-14-beagleboardorg-and-kickstarter-2013/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-01-14-beagleboardorg-and-kickstarter-2013/<h1>Looking at some BeagleBoard.org-based projects on Kickstarter from 2013</h1>
<p>A quick survey of some BeagleBoard.org-based projects on Kickstarter that launched in 2013 provides some interesting lessons that are perhaps more intuitive than decisive. From 3D printers, home automation, robotic controllers, processing elements and accessories, designs using Beagle are starting to show up all over Kickstarter. Most of them are being successful, but not every project idea is a recipe for success. Perhaps the most critical lesson is to fully engage a developer community if you want your project to succeed.
</p>
<div style="display: inline-block; width: 222px; height: 384px; max-width: 222px; max-height: 384px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="380" scrolling="no" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fsl/pegasus-touch-laser-sla-3d-printer-low-cost-high-q/widget/card.html" width="220"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="display: inline-block; width: 222px; height: 384px; max-width: 222px; max-height: 384px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="380" scrolling="no" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1575992013/logi-fpga-development-board-for-raspberry-pi-beagl/widget/card.html" width="220"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="display: inline-block; width: 222px; height: 384px; max-width: 222px; max-height: 384px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="380" scrolling="no" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ninja/ninja-sphere-next-generation-control-of-your-envir/widget/card.html" width="220"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="display: inline-block; width: 222px; height: 384px; max-width: 222px; max-height: 384px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="380" scrolling="no" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petcube/petcube-stay-closer-to-your-pet/widget/card.html" width="220"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="clear: both;"></div>
<div style="display: inline-block; width: 222px; height: 384px; max-width: 222px; max-height: 384px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="380" scrolling="no" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alphalem/rex-the-brain-for-robots/widget/card.html" width="220"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="display: inline-block; width: 222px; height: 384px; max-width: 222px; max-height: 384px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="380" scrolling="no" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1289576655/io-1-a-true-lpt-parallel-port-cape-for-the-beagleb/widget/card.html" width="220"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="display: inline-block; width: 222px; height: 384px; max-width: 222px; max-height: 384px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="380" scrolling="no" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/130607437/smart-power-base-initial-production-run/widget/card.html" width="220"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="display: inline-block; width: 222px; height: 384px; max-width: 222px; max-height: 384px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="380" scrolling="no" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1070166362/super-macro-bot/widget/card.html" width="220"></iframe>
</div>
<p>
For example, compare a couple of cape daughterboard add-ons for BeagleBone, the Logi-Bone and Io-1. Both had relatively modest funding goals of around $7,000, yet the Logi-Bone exceeded its funding goals 16 times over while the Io-1 wasn't successfully funded at all. What is likely to be noticed first is the professionalism of the presentation, including the web page and video, but examining both of them, is that really enough to make the difference?
</p>
<p>
Comparing more of the projects, another pattern stands out regarding successful projects and unsuccessful ones: projects executed by organizations instead of individuals. This may seem a bit discouraging at first given the idea that Kickstarter is the great equalizer, enabling individuals to gain funding without needing to sell out to larger institutions. Buried a bit beneath the surface, however, there are still a lot of reasons to be encouraged as an individual entrepreneur. In another <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1818704744/zero-to-maker-a-re-skilling-guide-for-new-makers">video on Kickstarter from OpenROV's David Lang</a>, an idea emerges that self-guided development is most successful when it is less about going it alone and more about going it together.
</p>
<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1818704744/zero-to-maker-a-re-skilling-guide-for-new-makers/widget/video.html" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"> </iframe>
<ul>
<li>Do it together!</li>
<li>Tools are out there</li>
<li>Learn just in time</li>
</ul>
<p>
David's experience with successful Kickstarter campaigns began with his <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/openrov/openrov-the-open-source-underwater-robot?ref=live">BeagleBone-based OpenROV underwater exploration vehicle</a>. In the execution of that project, it is made clear that a large team is not required to pull off a successful project, but rather a small team willing to reach out to a broader community of developers to learn how to best execute their concept. Further, the point at which Kickstarter is engaged is after working within a smaller community that later becomes advocates.
</p>
<p>
This is especially obvious in the recent Ninja Sphere successful campaign that raised the most money out of these projects, over $700,000. Ninja Blocks started small in 2012 with <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ninja/ninja-blocks-connect-your-world-with-the-web?ref=live">a successful campaign based around a BeagleBone</a> and has now taken the BeagleBone Black open hardware design to produce their new <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ninja/ninja-sphere-next-generation-control-of-your-envir?ref=users">fully-customized home automation platform derived from BeagleBone</a>. In between the two designs, Ninja Blocks has stayed engaged with the BeagleBoard.org community and continued developing community on their own around their open platform.
</p>
<p>
The Ninja Sphere isn't the only Kickstarter campaign to spin their own custom hardware based on Beagle designs; the new <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alphalem/rex-the-brain-for-robots?ref=card">Rex</a> board is a brain for robots that builds on the lessons of the BeagleBoard-xM. It looks like this project is doing pretty well, it certainly a case where more community outreach could have been done ahead of the fact as I'm only now hearing about the project. Thanks to folks like Hackaday and EE Times, I'm hopeful the word will get out there because the combinations of capability, power consumption, flexibility and size look very difficult to beat.
</p>
<p>
Just looking at my own personal inbox either from the BeagleBoard mailing list or direct messages, the rate of success has a lot to do with how much outreach you do outside your Kickstarter campaign and how early you engage the developer community. As other projects already active within the BeagleBoard.org community, such as <a href="http://www.osmobot.com/grow-cube/">GrowCubes</a>, start to launch their Kickstarter campaigns, I think we'll continue see this trend hold true.
</p>
<p>
Happy Kickstartering!
</p>
jkridner.wordpress.com14 Jan 2014 19:40:49 UTC2014-01-04-happy-new-yearhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-01-04-happy-new-year/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2014-01-04-happy-new-year/<h1>Happy New Year!</h1>
<h3>by Jason Kridner</h3>
<p>Here we are, 2014. Expect a big year for Beagle! Unfortunately, I have to
start out with an apology. <a href="http://linuxgizmos.com/beaglebone-black-sbc-surpasses-100000-units/">
LinuxGizmos.com
</a>
recently hopped on the news that over 100,000 BeagleBone Blacks have now
been sold. When they contacted me to confirm, I blundered a bit by repeating
and confirming what I thought was a fairly broadly shared rumor---that we
are looking to soon shift the Linux distribution that ships in the flash of
the boards from Angstrom to Debian. The blunder wasn't the confirming of the
news, but rather not doing a good job at communicating to the community
about this move better ahead of time. It didn't help that I was taking off
for vacation where my Internet access is spotty at best. So, I owe you all
a big apology, but I hope you are still excited about the news.
</p>
<h2>So what's coming?</h2>
<p>The big news is a shift to Debian in the on-board flash. You'll still be
able to flash Angstrom if you want to use that and myself and others in the
community will still be rather happy to help you with Angstrom-related
questions, but the feeling is that we'll get a much broader support base
if we have new users encounter Debian first on the upcoming boards.
</p>
<p>
The exact date of the switch-over hasn't been determined. Gerald had most
recently given me and everyone involved a deadline of giving him an image
by the end of January, but we are currently bottlenecked by the updated
version of Cloud9 IDE. I have been playing with a beta of version 3 and I
find it to be a huge improvement that will enable us to provide support for
C compilation within the IDE using plug-ins. The new version also runs on
node 0.10, making it much easier to work with recent Debian builds. Before
any switch in production happens, there will be a fairly complete beta image
shared broadly for testing.
</p>
<h2>How similar will the experience be?</h2>
<p>
If you aren't a heavy Linux user and just do a few things from the command-line
and use the Cloud9 IDE, the experience will be pretty similar, but I hope
you'll find it somewhat improved. If you are a more seasoned developer, I
probably don't need to answer the question, because you are already likely to
be somewhat experienced with Debian. All of the key features you expect
should be there.
</p>
<p>
We have a handful of performance goals to try to keep the experience on-par
with Angstrom. One is a boot time target of under 10 seconds. Using the
typical boot strategy for Debian Wheezy without any significant optimization,
Robert Nelson observed that boot time was more like 30 seconds. By switching
over to systemd, as is used by typical Angstrom builds, boot time dropped to
around 16 seconds. We'll be spending a bit of time trying to improve this
between now and the beta image.
</p>
<p>
Space on the flash will likely be very similar, due to trying to provide
similar functionality. The builds are currently quite a bit smaller, but
Robert is still adding in items to bring in feature parity.
</p>
<p>
<a href="https://github.com/jadonk/bonescript">
BoneScript
</a>
will still be included in the out-of-box experience to help
quickly prove out the various hardware interfaces and help people learn
about wiring up hardware. I've fixed most of the issues with getting BoneScript
onto other distros besides Angstrom and am planning to soon release version
0.2.4 that already has improved support for switching pin modes and reading
pin states.
</p>
<p>
The USB flash drive and USB networking features will still be included, as
well as the driver install guide, self-hosted web-based tutorial and the
previously mentioned Cloud9 IDE.
</p>
<p>
Over time, there will be more promotion of the
<a href="http://elinux.org/Userspace_Arduino">Userspace Arduino project</a>
that provides an easy-to-learn C API for rapid prototyping of hardware
projects. Of course, the boards will continue to ship with a C/C++ compiler
and build tools, libraries, and a number of interpreters, such as Python. I'd love to
include the Adafruit BBIO Python library, so I'll be contacting them to see
if they'll approve that. I've also been chatting
quite a few times with the Erlang folks, so that is something that has a
good likelihood of being included.
</p>
<p>
The kernel is likely to be the same one included currently in Angstrom, the
<a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/tree/3.8">
customized 3.8.x kernel.
</a>
However, if the release slips enough, there is a reasonable chance we'll be
switching over to one of either the
<a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/tree/3.12">
3.12
</a>
or
<a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/tree/3.13">
3.13-rc
</a>
kernels. A good amount of attention will be paid to having a good set of
drivers and firmware for USB wifi adapters included as this was a pain
point for some people in the past.
</p>
<h2>How to contribute?</h2>
<p>
The script for building the image is currently hosted at
<a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/image-builder">
https://github.com/beagleboard/image-builder
</a>. Hop on the mailing list with questions about running the script and
send Github pull requests if you have suggested improvements. Contributing
to the kernel continues to be the same at
<a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel">
https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel
</a>.
I am overdue, however, at writing up how to contribute Cape DTS firmware
sources that configure Cape hardware automatically using devicetree. The
new repository for that is at
<a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/cape-firmware">
https://github.com/beagleboard/cape-firmware
</a>
and it just needs a good README that describes the details of contributing.
</p>
<p>
Thanks for all of your support and I'm so very thrilled with all the
amazing things happening in the Beagleverse for 2014!
</p>jkridner.wordpress.com04 Jan 2014 15:32:49 UTC2013-12-17-project-spotlight-orbital-renderspherehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-12-17-project-spotlight-orbital-rendersphere/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-12-17-project-spotlight-orbital-rendersphere/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>Orbital Rendersphere</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
If you went to Maker Faire New York this year, you could not have
missed the Orbital Rendersphere. This “Big Giant Spinning Limb
Slicer,” as the <a href = "http://blog.makerbar.com/">Hoboken MakerBar</a>
team affectionately calls it, displays images and videos on a
four-foot diameter spherical surface using persistence of vision
(POV) spinning at 450 RPM. It had a constant crowd surrounding it
and earned five ribbons at the faire: four Editor’s Choice ribbons
and one Educator’s Choice ribbon.
</p>
<p>
<table>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3DZjBwA.jpg" WIDTH=263 HEIGHT=350 alt="1" /></td>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/KEUsf0x.jpg" Width=466 Height=350 alt="2"/></td>
</tr>
</table> </P><p>
</p>
<p>
The Orbital Rendersphere started out as an idea for an entry into the
2013 Red Bull Creation Contest in April 2013. Red Bull sent the crew
at Maker Bar a number of LED strips and asked them to build something
cool out of it. They developed the idea, and then started building
only a few days before the contest deadline. After spending a crazy
weekend working like madmen on the project, the Orbital Rendersphere
didn’t orbit! The team decided that the project was too good to let
die, so they set their sights on having the project done by Maker
Faire New York. The team also decided to set their sights higher for
what they wanted the display to do. They increased the size and
resolution of the display and redesigned it to be able to display
video at 30 frames per second by spinning four vertical LED strips
spaced 90 degrees apart at 450 RPM, or 7.5 rotations per second!
</p>
<p>
After first experimenting with microcontrollers, the team selected
BeagleBone Black, to power the Rendersphere’s 36 feet of WS80211 LED
strips. BeagleBone provided much more memory to accommodate
larger image data and was able to update the LED strips extremely
quickly through the use of Trammel Hudson's LEDScape code. The
LEDScape code uses the programmable real-time units (PRU) on the
Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x processor that powers BeagleBone
Black to update multiple LED strips simultaneously with very little
burden on the CPU. The team also uses a custom circuit board to
buffer and connect GPIO outputs to the LED strips.
</p>
<p>
The main controller is a Mac Mini mounted in a custom arcade
console. Every frame of video is rendered on this console and
streamed over Wi-Fi to reduce the number of wires needed—normal
wires don’t work for a POV display because they would get tangled
up from all of the spinning. Because of this challenge, all of the
brains required to run the display are mounted to the spinning part
and spin along with the display.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/LMfUfOq.jpg" WIDTH=438 HEIGHT=329
</p>
<p>
The only wires the team required between the spinning and
non-spinning part were for the power and ground connections. The
team ran these lines from the power supply (3 10-amp 5V power
supplies), one to the top and the other to the bottom of the axle
where they contacted copper slip rings, and then distributed power
to everything on the spinning part.
</p>
<p>
The Orbital Rendersphere frame presented the team with another
challenge. The team needed to create a frame that offers structural
stability, provides good visibility to the display and can be
quickly assembled/dissembled for transport. The team created a
modular frame design that provides unobstructed views of the
display from three sides, bolts together quickly, and fits in a
single van.
</p>
<p>
Now that the team had a desired rotation rate for the display and a
frame to offer stability, they had to figure out how to actually
spin the display. They tried a number of different configurations,
but in the end, the simplest idea was the best. They mounted an
electric heavy duty hand drill (Harbor Freight) to the top of the
frame and used it to spin the axle. This provided a nice solution
since hand drills have built-in high-torque axial transmission,
which allows the Orbital Rendersphere to spin up gradually from a
dead stop without slipping or burning out the motor.
</p>
<p>
We asked Travis what his team at MakerBar has coming down the pipe.
He said that they going to scale up the concept they’ve started.
“We don’t want to spoil the surprise, but it’s going to be BIG!”
Travis said. He also invited others with a love for electronics and
a passion for making cool projects to “come down, share your
projects or ideas, have a beer with us, and share in our passion for
all things electric!” Whether you make it to Hoboken or not,
hopefully we’ll see more of the Orbital Rendersphere (or the big
next generation) at Maker Faire 2014!
</p>
<p>
For more information about MakerBar, or to help out and support
The Orbital Rendersphere project, check out their <a href="https://www.facebook.com/themakerbar">
Facebook page</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/makerbar/">Twitter feed</a>
and <a href="http://blog.makerbar.com/">blog</a>.
</p><p>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dwLC5xzJSMU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</p>Video credit: Andrew Fustini, element14
<p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com17 Dec 2013 17:05:17 UTC2013-12-09-let-beaglebone-black-give-your-old-games-an-extra-lifehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-12-09-let-beaglebone-black-give-your-old-games-an-extra-life/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-12-09-let-beaglebone-black-give-your-old-games-an-extra-life/<h1>Let BeagleBone Black Give Your Old Games an Extra Life!</h1>
<h3>by Jason Kridner</h3>
<p>
Don't let the fun you had playing childhood video games disappear and decay as
forgotten memories — give them an extra life! Help make sure that generations
to come will still be able to run the same software you run today, including
the video games of yesterday. Open source enables us to preserve the
information to run those games, passing them on to the next generation. In
fact, there's already a huge movement of people saving their old games using
"retro-gaming systems," but not all of them are fully open source. Because the
BeagleBone Black not only runs open source software, but is also open source
<b>hardware</b>, taking the time to bring it your games your games up on
BeagleBone Black means you'll be able to bring those games with you into the
future.
</p>
<h2>Why BeagleBone Black?</h2>
<p>
Why does BeagleBone Black make an awesome choice for building your retro-gaming
system? Firstly, it is affordable. If you're on a budget, all you need to add
is a gaming controller, a USB charger (one like you already have for your phone)
and a microHDMI cable to connect up to your TV. You can use the pre-installed
system on BeagleBone Black's on-board 2GB eMMC flash as a basis for
compiling and running your game system emulators, such as MAME, which lets you
run old arcade games, Stella, which lets you run your old Atari 2600 games and
DEmul, which lets you run your old Dreamcast games.
</p>
<p>
Having a compiler and full set of build tools without needing to download and
configure anything can make for a wonderful experience. Nevertheless, if you
aren't very familiar with embedded Linux, you might want to switch to a more
familiar Linux distribution. For my simplest setup, I chose to
<a href="http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardDebian#eMMC:_BeagleBone_Black">flash
Debian onto my BeagleBone Black's eMMC</a>. I used a microSD card to put the
new operating system on my BeagleBone Black. If I was feeling especially cheap,
I could have opted for a tool developed by Vlad Victor Ungureanu, one of the
BeagleBoard.org students who participated in the 2013 Google Summer of Code.
Vlad has provided a utility that can be used to flash a BeagleBone Black from
an Android phone or Linux computer without needing a microSD card
(<a href="https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BBBlfs">
https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BBBlfs</a>).
</p>
<h2>Not just affordable, it's also easy</h2>
<p>
Of course, if all this talk of "compiling" and "Linux distributions" has you
feeling uneasy, remember &mdash; no need to fear, BeagleSNES is here! Take a
virtual stroll over to
<a href="http://www.beaglesnes.org">http://www.beaglesnes.org</a> and you can
download an image for a microSD card that's ready to boot 'n roll. This image
is built on Ubuntu and a full set of documentation is available to get you
started. In the future, it might even get easier as I've been working on a
<a href="https://github.com/jadonk/buildroot/blob/snes9x/README.md">
Buildroot based image that will let you boot and run off of a FAT-formatted
microSD card</a>, rather than needing to copy over an exact disk image .
</p>
<p>
It is also really easy to put a case around your new retro-gaming system such
that it can sit neatly in the living room without getting chewed up by the dog.
Here's a quick look at some of my favorites, including very affordable plastic
and laser-cut cases as well as stamped metal cases you could stand on, if
somehow the need arose:
</p>
<div style="display:table;"><div style="display:table-row;">
<div style="display:table-cell;width:120px;height:100px;padding:10px;">
<a href="http://www.adafruit.com/products/1555">
<img src="/static/uploads/adafruit-1555.png" width="100px;"><br />
Adafruit #1555</a><br />
($9.95 – plastic)
</div>
<div style="display:table-cell;width:120px;height:100px;padding:10px;">
<a href="http://www.logicsupply.com/components/cases/lgx/bb100/">
<img src="/static/uploads/lgx-bb100.png" width="100px;"><br />
Logic Supply BB100</a><br />
($14.95 – metal)
</div>
<div style="display:table-cell;width:120px;height:100px;padding:10px;">
<a href="http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Hammond/1593HAMDOGBK/?qs=c8305KrhTpzfcssm1ZcOOw%3D%3D&gclid=CJjrzaDzlrsCFa9cMgod6G4AUQ">
<img src="/static/uploads/hammond-1593.png" width="100px;"><br />
Hammond 1593HAMDOGBK</a><br />
($5.40 – plastic)
</div>
<div style="display:table-cell;width:120px;height:100px;padding:10px;">
<a href="http://lasergoodies.com/shop/beaglebone-black-slim-case-clear">
<img src="/static/uploads/lasergoodies-slim.png" width="100px;"><br />
LaserGoodies.com Slim Case</a><br />
($11.99 – acrylic)
</div>
<div style="display:table-cell;width:120px;height:100px;padding:10px;">
<a href="http://www.adafruit.com/products/699">
<img src="/static/uploads/adafruit-699.png" width="100px;"><br />
Adafruit #699</a><br />
($19.95 – acrylic)
</div>
</div></div>
<h2>Make it your own</h2>
<div style="float:left;padding:10px;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wj1T84orbeY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>
Off the shelf software and cases make it easy, but small, low-power, open
software and hardware means that you can customize to your heart's content.
For me, that meant putting my BeagleBone Black into a cabinet and attaching a
10" LCD screen. For my first case, I was a bit lazy and started with an
off-the-shelf cabinet —
<a href="http://www.ionaudio.com/products/details/icade">the iCade</a>. It is a
nice case with solid controllers, originally built for an iPad, but I was able
to easily mount my LCD panel using a 2-by-4 and some velcro I got at my local
hackerspace (<a href="http://www.i3detroit.com/">i3 Detroit</a>) and connect
to the controls using a USB Bluetooth dongle. For the LCD screen, I used the
one from
<a href="http://www.chalk-elec.com/?page_id=1280#!/~/product/category=3094859&id=13939433">
Chalkboard Electronics</a>.
</p>
<p>
For my next upright version, I got some custom components and ideas from the
folks at i3 Detroit, including a smaller laser-cut cabinet partially inspired
by the iCade and a less-expensive, more-flexible 7" LCD that takes an HDMI
input. I ended up buying the LCD off of
<a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/For-Raspberry-Pi-LCD-Screen-Display-Monitor-7-Inch-Driver-Board-HDMI-VGA-2AV-/331079009429">
eBay for less than $50</a>. I'm told LCD system seems to have been designed for
backing-up cameras in cars, but I haven't been able to find a more traditional
distributor stocking these displays.
</p>
<p>
This new cabinet looks really promising and there is already one
<a href="https://github.com/i3detroit/beagle-py-hotandcold">
setup at i3 Detroit showing constant weather updates</a>, but the killer case
has got to be the laser-cut handheld case with the
<a href="http://bear24rw.blogspot.com/2013/07/beaglebone-gamingcape.html">
battery-powered GamingCape by Max Thrun</a> he did as part of the TI 2013
Intern Challenge. Unfortunately, you can't buy the case or cape anywhere, so
we set out to build our own at i3 Detroit. I ordered 3
<a href="http://oshpark.com/orders/1ut52Pg4">PCBs from OSHPark</a>
and purchased most of the components at Digi-Key. All said and done, I'll have
ended up paying about $160 each (including BeagleBone Black) for 3 units hand
assembled by one of the members of the space (in exchange for getting one of
the units) and assembly has begun. It wouldn't take a much larger order to
drastically cut the price, but we just want our hands on a couple of these
bad boys on our own for now.
</p>
<p>
It is worth a few minutes to watch Max's amazing video of his assembly.
</p>
<h2>Final thoughts on retro-gaming, custom-gaming and physical-gaming</h2>
<div style="float:right;padding:10px;">
<iframe width="315" height="420" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wDq7iqvvSMw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<p>
In addition to being affordable, easy, supported by off-the-shelf enclosures
and highly customizable, you might also simply choose to use BeagleBone Black
for a retro-gaming project simply because of its performance and interfacing
abilities. The super-scalar ARM Cortex-A8 can execute 2 instructions every
cycle and has a vector accelerator called NEON that can perform up to 8
operations per cycle — and it runs at 1GHz. This is in addition to having a
built-in 3D graphics accelerator and two 200MHz microcontrollers to handle
all of the real-time interfacing aspects. You might have already seen how
these microcontrollers can be used to drive huge LED displays without consuming
any of the primary CPU in projects like
<a href="http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-22-project-spotlight-octoscroller/">
Disorient Pyramid</a>.
</p>
<p>
These performance and interfacing aspects, in addition to providing ways to run
game system emulators faster and in more environments with more input and
display devices, also open up entirely new types of gaming. One example is the
Node.JS-based multiple-room physical-gaming system built by Eric Gradman
(<a href="https://vimeo.com/60993092">https://vimeo.com/60993092</a>,
<a href="http://www.pehub.com/2010/04/gradman-bushnell-aim-to-create-new-gaming-experience/">
http://www.pehub.com/2010/04/gradman-bushnell-aim-to-create-new-gaming-experience/
</a>). For those of you concerned about retro-gaming copyright issues
(<a href="http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp">http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp</a>),
creating and exploring entirely new games and new gaming experiences might be
just the cure for your worries and boredom. Then again, you might simply be
looking to bring back old games on your own without emulators and creating new
experiences around them, like with Benjamin James' 30-foot Tetris wall.
</p>
<p>
Retro-gaming or custom-gaming, good times are here for you and your Beagle.
</p>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>jkridner.wordpress.com10 Dec 2013 17:54:28 UTC2013-12-10-project-spotlight-lasersaurhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-12-10-project-spotlight-lasersaur/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-12-10-project-spotlight-lasersaur/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br>The Lasersaur</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
Addie Wagenknecht and Stefan Hachenberger, co-founders of NORDT
Labs, have many secret talents. Addie can bake some mean chocolate
chip cookies at 15,000+ feet in high winds on a mountain, and she
can open a beer bottle with just about anything (like a lighter)
thanks to <a href="http://sternlab.org/">Becky Stern</a>.
Stefan, on the other hand, makes the best <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserschmarrn">
kiserschmann</a> in Austria, according to Addie. But their most
recent project—the Lasersaur—shows their best talent yet.
</p>
<p>
The Lasersaur is an open source laser cutter. With CAD drawings,
circuit schematics, software and a bill of materials available from
NORTD Labs, end users can build these laser cutters themselves. The
Lasersaur was designed to fill the needs of makers, artists and
scientists who want a safe and highly capable machine.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/smTOD65.jpg" WIDTH=460 HEIGHT=308
<p> </p>Image credit: NORDT Labs
</p>
<p>
When Addie and Stefan designed the Lasersaur, they weren’t
interested in building the cheapest machine. They were interested
in building a platform that is sourceable worldwide, simple to
build, reproduce, duplicate and understand, dependable after
hundreds of hours of use, and safe. They want the end users to
truly own it and have access to all the designs that went into it.
</p>
<p>
“We had spent thousands of hours on other people’s laser cutters
while in graduate school. We depended on the systems, yet they were
expensive and frustrating to use,” said Addie. “The software was
often horrible. We would have to run some obscure machine, running
CorelDrAW, and transfer everything from our OSX or Ubuntu systems to
do it. We felt like it could be done better, and for a lot less than
what it would cost to buy ready-made.”
</p>
<p>
As a result of this experience, Addie and Stefan have written the
Lasersaur’s open-source software and plug-ins from the ground up,
and according to Addie, they “will do things you have never seen
before—open-source software or not. It is locally hosted and can
run off of any web browser, which means you don't have to install
additional software or extensions to get it to cut. It's plug and
play.”
</p>
<p>
Addie and Stefan haven’t fully opened the source for the Lasersaur
yet, but hacker spaces in Philadelphia, Dublin and Tokyo; labs at
Carnegie Mellon, NYU and the University of São Paulo; and many
individuals have already built their own Lasersaur.
</p>
<p>
The Lasersaur is based on BeagleBone Black, powered by TI’s Sitara
AM335x processor. Addie and Stefan chose this computer because they
were interested in continuing to work with and support Linux.
“Since Ångström was pre-installed, we were able to continue to use
Ubuntu for the Lasersar. We found BeagleBone Black plays well with
USB peripherals like Wi-Fi dongles. It was rather painless to get
the Lasersaur image configured onto BeagleBone Black, so it felt
like a shoo-in. As a bonus, it’s globally available, stable, easy
to pick up, learn and hack, and the price is right!” said Addie.
</p>
<p>
Lasersaurs are built to use 40-200 watt carbon dioxide lasers and to
have a bed size of 24 × 48 in (61 × 120 cm). They are comprised of
both stationary and dynamic parks. The primary building blocks of
both the frame and the ganty are T-slot aluminum extrusions bolted
together with M5 bolts and T-slot nuts. The Lasersaur is designed
around extrusions with 20, 40 and 80 mm side lengths. All of the
mount assemblies are built from angle brackets. A few parts are
custom-cut 6 mm acrylic (or more recently, aluminum) pieces. CAD
drawings for the acrylic parts are freely available and can be made
using a laser cutter - and should they fail, they may be replaced
with spare parts made by the Lasersaur itself. Aluminum versions of
those parts may be purchased from the NORTD Labs store, or users can
have them cut somewhere. No proprietary rails and carriage
assemblies are used. The Lasersaur carriages are built from
standard-sized ball bearings (with nylon coating), cap screws and
custom-cut acrylic or metal pieces.
</p>
<p>
According to Addie, the biggest issue has been funding. “At first we
used <a href ="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nortd/lasersaur-open-source-laser-cutter-0">
Kickstarter</a>. At some point far enough into development, we were
able to take fellowships and residencies to further fund the
project and push it forward. We also put our own money and time
into it. At some point, the community support allowed the project
to almost become self-sustained. We hope to get the financial and
social capital to 100% one day. University builds like that of
Carnegie Melon and New York University have been a big help to the
exposure of the project.”
</p>
<p>
For more information about Lasersaur, visit <a href="http://www.lasersaur.com">Lasersaur.com</a>.
Addie and Stefan have completed many other successful projects. To
find about more about them, visit <a href="http://labs.nortd.com/">the NORTD Labs website</a>.
And definitely stay tuned: they’ve been toying with an interesting
idea for an open-source industrial robotic arm!
</p>
<p></p><p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com10 Dec 2013 04:04:28 UTC2013-12-03-project-spotlight-uss-langleyhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-12-03-project-spotlight-uss-langley/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-12-03-project-spotlight-uss-langley/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBoard-xM project spotlight:<br> USS Langley Space Server</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
You’ve heard of monkeys and apes being sent to space, but did you
know a Beagle is also being launched into the ether? In 2014, Sam
Sipe and his team at the U.S. Naval Academy are launching a
BeagleBoard-xM into space as part of their Unix space server.
</p>
<p>
Sam Sipe got the idea for a Linux-based, open-source webserver in
space during his sophomore year at the Academy. “I was taking EA204,
which is our introduction to Astronautical Engineering course, while
simultaneously teaching myself web code for an unrelated venture.
Eventually I asked my instructor, CDR Blocker, why there weren’t any
TCP/IP-capable satellites in low-earth orbit — less than 1,200 miles
in altitude. He suggested that I do more research and report back.
This, in turn, turned into an independent research project the next
semester,” said Sam. Sam fully fleshed out the project, deciding to
develop a 3U CubeSat that will host a webserver in space. This small
satellite server would provide a faster link between clients and
hosts without needing to use the terrestrial network. Titled USS
Langley after the first aircraft carrier, this space server is now a
Capstone Senior Design Project at the Academy.
</p>
<p>
<table>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/C8VpHTu.jpg" WIDTH=221 HEIGHT=294 alt="1" /></td>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/fwLxdeH.jpg" Width=221 Height=294 alt="2"/></td>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/t2XDLsf.jpg" Width=392 Height=294 alt="3"/></td>
</tr>
</table> </P><p>
</p>
<p>
The USS Langley development team is made up of eight undergraduate
students and two professors. The team chose to base USS Langley on
a BeagleBoard-xM open-source computer, powered by a TI Sitara
processor. “We chose the BeagleBoard-xM because of its small form
factor, customizability, and low power requirements,” said Sam.
</p>
<p>
The project has not been without its challenges, according to Sam.
“The biggest problem when designing a satellite with non-space-rated
hardware is verifying that it will do what you need it to do in
space, with no heat convection, no air, huge swings in temperature,
and radiation. This has been overcome with testing and modification
flight hardware,” said Sam. Another major concern that the team has
dealt with regularly is finding continued funding.
</p>
<p>
The team has secured a spot on a launch set for late 2014, and it
will deliver the satellite early in the summer. Keep your eyes on
the skies to see USS Langley in action!
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/1ARjvxh.jpg" Width=480 Height=264
</p>
<p>
While Sam himself may not be going to space, he will be going
through flight school after he graduates from the Academy in May.
Sam is definitely one to keep an eye on in the future! If you want
to find out more about USS Langley or keep tabs on Sam’s projects,
you can visit his personal website at
<a href="http://samsipe.com/#/research">http://samsipe.com/#/research</a>.
</p>
<p>
</p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com03 Dec 2013 15:54:09 UTC2013-11-26-project-spotlight-dirty-dish-detectorhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-26-project-spotlight-dirty-dish-detector/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-26-project-spotlight-dirty-dish-detector/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone project spotlight:<br> Dirty Dish Detector</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. My family usually runs
a turkey trot together, makes and eats great food, and spends the
evening playing board games. The one down side of Thanksgiving is
all of those dirty dishes! Sometimes I think it takes more time to
clean up than we even spend eating turkey dinner. The result? The
family falls asleep on the floor (thanks tryptophan!) before all of
the dishes are cleaned up, leaving a mess in the kitchen sink.
</p>
<p>
Lucky for us all, <a href="https://london.hackspace.org.uk/">London Hackspace</a> member
Tom created the Dirty Dish Detector to help keep the hackspace sink
clean. The system alerts users when a dish has been left in the sink
for too long, ensuring you’ll get all of those dishes cleaned up
before napping ensues. The Dirty Dish Detector uses a webcam above
the sink, hooked to a BeagleBone open-source computer, based on TI’s
Sitara AM335x processor. The computer runs the HoughCircles function
in OpenCV to detect circle-shaped items like plates, classes and
bowls. BeagleBone then sends a signal to an Arduino, which deploys
different alerts (based on how long the sink has been full) to
remind people to clean up their dishes.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/L17K8dQ.jpg" height="480" width="640">
</p>
<p>
Tom has a few upgrades planned that may help us catch more criminals
by next year’s Thanksgiving! Right now, cutlery can escape the gaze
of OpenCV since it isn’t circular. Next year’s offenders will be
caught red-handed for cutlery misdeeds. Tom plans to add a
camera to catch mugshots of these dish delinquents as well.
</p>
<p>
Want to make your own Dirty Dish Detector? Visit <a href="https://github.com/fridgehead/Dish-Detector">
Tom's GitHub site</a> to find the code!
</p>
<p>
</p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com26 Nov 2013 14:06:09 UTC2013-11-19-project-spotlight-opensprinklerhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-19-project-spotlight-opensprinkler/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-19-project-spotlight-opensprinkler/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br> Open Sprinkler Beagle (OSBo)</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
Planning to buy a sprinkler timer for your loved ones this holiday
season? Have no fear, OpenSprinkler is here! Developed by Ray Wang
at Rayshobby LLC, OpenSprinkler Beagle—nicknamed OSBo—was released
last week. It is an open-source sprinkler/irrigation extension
board for the Sitara-processor-based BeagleBone Black. The board
helps you easily develop BeagleBone Black into a low-cost,
web-connected smart sprinkler controller. It comes with a
full-featured sprinkler scheduling program, uses online weather
data to help regulate water time, and enables users to remotely
change setting and programs while away from home. It works with the
standard 24VAC sprinkler valves commonly found in household
watering and irrigation systems and allows for an unlimited number
of water zones to be individually controlled. Because it’s open
source, it offers a lot of flexibility in features and
functionality. Users are encouraged to hack the hardware and/or
software (written in Python, which is easy to learn).
</p><p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/bRHA9fA.jpg" height="308" width="410">
</p>
<p>
What motivated Ray to create such an innovative and futuristic
project? Ray wanted to provide a solution to the limited set of
fixed functionality and outdated user interface that come with most
commercial sprinkler timers or controllers. Ray even included a
relay on OSBo and hopes it can be used for opening/closing garage
doors as well at some point in the future!
</p>
<p>
Ray has made several other versions of OpenSprinkler based on other
low-cost computers, but he selected BeagleBone Black for the newest
version to add even more features thanks to the large number of
GPIO pins, built-in analog pins, eMMC, microSD card, and the
high-performance Sitara AM335x processor from TI. The OSBo board
contains a 24VAC to 5VDC switching regulator, shift register,
triacs, terminal blocks, a zone expansion board connector, a rain
sensor terminal, and a mini-relay. It provides 5V power to
BeagleBone Black and uses four GPIO pins to interface with the
shift register as well as SDA2/SCL2 to interface with the DS1307
RTC. The BeagleBone Black computer is oriented face-down, and it
plugs directly into the extra-long male pin headers. The biggest
advantage of the face-down design is doesn’t necessitate cables,
thus there is extra space in the upper-half of the enclosure that
makes it possible to add additional modules. To make it easy to
reuse the available pins on BeagleBone Black, Ray also mapped out
all of the 46 pins on ports P8 and P9 to the pinout area.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/lve68f3.jpg" height="308" width="410">
</p>
<p>
Check out the OSBo homepage at <a href="http://beagle.opensprinkler.com">
http://beagle.opensprinkler.com</a> for
more information or to purchase the OSBO v1 open-source sprinkler /
irrigation extension board. You can also stay up to date on what
Ray is developing on his blog at <a href="http://rayshobby.net/?page_id=1857">
http://blog.rayshobby.net</a>.
</p>
<p>
</p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com19 Nov 2013 20:41:05 UTC2013-11-12-project-spotlight-openrovhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-12-project-spotlight-openrov/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-12-project-spotlight-openrov/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br> OpenROV</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
Whether you want to explore the seas for science and education,
“snorkel” for fish and coral without getting wet, or hunt for
buried treasure in unexplored seas, OpenROV is something you need
to check out!
</p><p>
David Lang and Eric Stackpole created OpenROV—an underwater robot
that can be controlled with a laptop—in a garage in Cupertino, Calif.
with the goal of exploring an underwater cave. After finding a global
community of co-developers on <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/openrov/openrov-the-open-source-underwater-robot">
Kickstarter</a>, the project evolved,
developing into a global community of DIY ocean explorers who are
using and improving the OpenROV design. The community gathers
everyone from professional ocean engineers and software developers
to hobbyists and students, all who want to learn and explore the
oceans and lakes of the world. Adventurous souls can make their own
OpenROV from scratch, using design files on OpenROV.com for support.
Explorers also can
<a href="http://openrov.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/openrov-2-5-kit">
buy an OpenROV kit</a>, which comes with all the
hardware needed to assemble your own OpenROV, for only $849.00.
</p>
<p>
<table>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ztgni0G.jpg" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=200 alt="1" /></td>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/xbgdxLp.jpg" Width=300 Height=200 alt="2"/></td>
</tr>
</table> </P><p></p><p>
The newest OpenROV robot—OpenROV 2.5—was introduced in September
2013. It is now powered by the Sitara-processor-based BeagleBone Black
(it was formerly powered by the original BeagleBone), enabling lower
cost and higher performance robots. Its many other upgrades include a
durable polypropylene shell, more efficient propellers, added buoyancy
to support more payloads, more robust battery tubes, and laser range
and size calculating capability. These submarine-like robots are
open-source, enabling anyone to hack them to add new features and
functionality. David and Eric say the robot kit can be built in a
single weekend, so you can kick off your treasure hunt in no time,
even without a degree in engineering!
</p>
<p>
OpenROV sounds cool, but it’s even more impressive in action. Check
out CNN’s video of OpenROV to see how it works:</p><p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ko7wwbB-0lw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</p>
<p>
There are now more than 500 OpenROVs swimming in more than 50
countries around the world. Want to explore your own unchartered
waters? Visit <a href="http://openrov.com">OpenROV.com</a> to find out more.
</p>
<p>
If you want to hear more about David Lang’s leap into the Maker
movement and how he grew to be a successful entrepreneur, check out
his new book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Maker-Learn-Enough-Anything/dp/1449356435">
<i>Zero to Maker: Learn (Just Enough) to Make (Just About)
Anything</i></a>.
</p>
<p>
</p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com12 Nov 2013 15:24:43 UTC2013-11-07-project-spotlight-growcubeshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-07-project-spotlight-growcubes/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-07-project-spotlight-growcubes/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br> GrowCubes</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
Open-source technology is all about getting the power of technology
into the hands of everyone. That’s why we at BeagleBoard.org really
like the idea of GrowCubes —stackable, modular farming environments
that use mobile technology and aeroponics to grow delicious,
organic produce indoors—using 90% less water. Developed by a team
at NYC Resistor (NYCR), GrowCubes democratize agriculture by placing
the power to grow back into the hands of individuals and
communities. “It’s based on the radical idea that food should be
healthy, tasty and accessible to all,” said Chris Beauvois, founder
of GrowCubes. This idea of open-source agriculture has implications
not only for culinary culture, but for some of the urgent public
health issues facing us today.
</p><p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/B8l4bwF.jpg" height="324" width="480">
</p>
<p>
According to Chris, developing GrowCubes was very challenging.
“Aeroponics is a delicate process, and we spent more than a year
developing our misting hardware alone.” In addition to these
aeroponic spray misters, the system also includes a network of
sensors and data from the Internet to give the system intel about
what each plant needs. With this information, GrowCubes automatically
rotate shelves, ensuring plants get the best possible light.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/FHdLIQT.png" height="280" width="282">
</p>
<p>
GrowCubes are powered by BeagleBone Black. Chris and his team at
NYCR chose BeagleBone Black for its high performance, large GPIO
pin count and the added real-time performance of the programmable
real-time unit (PRU) within TI’s Sitara AM335x processor.
“BeagleBone Black is the most complete solution of any kind and is
especially suited to handling the complexities of our product,”
said Chris.
</p>
<p>
Now that the NYCR team has its project complete, it plans to build
a large run of GrowCubes to distribute to public schools in New York
City.
</p>
<p>
GrowCubes is currently a contender in Engadget’s Insert Coin: New
Challengers competition, where readers can vote for the most
promising crowd-funding hardware. Online voting starts at 5 p.m. EST
on Saturday, Nov. 9 and ends at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 10.
If you are inspired by what GrowCubes can do for agriculture in our
cities (or anywhere else for that matter), consider voting for them
<a href="http://insertcoin2.engadget.com">here</a>.
</p>
<p>
Want even more information about GrowCubes? The best place to start
at the moment is <a href="http://bit.ly/16nmQWR">this YouTube video</a>.
You can also check out Chris Beauvois’ interview with Mike Riggs at
<a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2013/10/computer-assisted-aeroponic-growing-future-urban-farming/7207/">
The Atlantic Cities blog</a>. And
lastly, tune into MSNBC at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 10. Chris will be
a featured guest!
</p>
<p>
</p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com07 Nov 2013 18:50:48 UTC2013-11-06-beagleboneblack-3d-printer-introhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-06-beagleboneblack-3d-printer-intro/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-06-beagleboneblack-3d-printer-intro/<h1>Introduction to 3D printing with BeagleBone Black</h1>
<p>by Jason Kridner</p>
<p>Over on the <a href="http://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/toolsinsider/default.aspx">TI Tools Insider Blog</a>, Alejandro Erives has been talking about <a href="/blogs_/b/toolsinsider/archive/2013/06/06/imagine-you-were-given-a-machine-that-could-make-anything-what-would-you-make.aspx">self-replicating machines</a> and Stephanie Pearson day-dreamed about giving a Beagle a 3D printer and the impact on <a href="/blogs_/b/toolsinsider/archive/2013/07/25/if-you-give-a-beagle-a-3d-printer.aspx">open source hardware</a>. This prompts the question, how do you get started and where can you end up?</p>
<p>Here's the quick overview of what you'll need to produce your very own first prints in 3D plastic, before we dive into any details:</p>
<ol>
<li>Processor to control your printer — such as provided by the TI Sitara AM335x on <a href="http://beagleboard.org/black">BeagleBone Black</a></li>
<li>Electronics to drive your positioning and extruder motors, extruder heating element, heating plate and limit switches — such as provided by a <a href="http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeBoPr-Plus">BeBoPr-Plus Cape</a>, <a href="http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/2133">Pololu #2133</a> stepper motor drivers using TI <a href="http://www.ti.com/product/DRV8825" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">DRV8825</a> devices and an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Power-Supply-STI-008-025-5-5mm/dp/B00AI1BAFK">off-the-shelf power supply</a></li>
<li>Mechanical structure with drive motors, extruder, heating elements, build surface and limit switches — such as provided by a <a href="http://reprap.org/wiki/Huxley">RepRap Huxley</a></li>
<li>Software to run the slice up the 3D models into GCode, an interpreter for the GCode and to send pulse trains to the stepper motor drivers — such as is provided by the <a href="http://bb-lcnc.blogspot.com.br/p/machinekit_16.html">Machinekit Linux distribution</a> based on Debian, Robert Nelson's image building tools and Charles Steinkuehler's integration work</li>
<li>Models for the components you want to build — such as these <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:50730">Mendel plastic components on Thingiverse</a></li>
<li>Patience — give yourself plenty of time when getting started with 3D printing and you'll find it a fun and rewarding endeavor!</li>
</ol>
<h2>Processor</h2>
<p>Choosing the processor is the easy part, because the AM335x on BeagleBone Black has all of the most important hardware features you might need, including a fast processor, video display output with 3D graphics rendering capabilities, Ethernet/USB connectivity, ADCs, PWMs, lots of GPIOs and a couple of independent fast microcontrollers optimized for producing interface logic. At BeagleBone Black's rather affordable price point, nothing else is close when examining all of these features. Let's look at how each of those elements comes into necessity.</p>
<p>To read the heat data, the simplest mechanisms are to utilize either an <a href="http://learn.adafruit.com/measuring-temperature-with-a-beaglebone-black/overview">analog temperature sensor</a> or a <a href="http://hipstercircuits.com/dallas-one-wire-temperature-reading-on-beaglebone-black-with-dto/">one-wire temperature sensor</a>. An on-chip ADC sample the analog temperature values directly without additional hardware. The one-wire bus protocol is an alternative that enables multiple sensors to be connected along the same single-wire bus, simplifying the wiring topology and bringing data back to the processor digitally. Linux provides a driver that is capable of turning a GPIO pin into a one-wire bus port and this driver is almost trivial to enable using. Getting an accurate temperature reading has never been easier.</p>
<p>The multitude of GPIOs serve many purposes, in addition to providing ports for one-wire support. Each limit switch provides time-critical information to the electronic controls in the case where a motor's position needs to be calibrated or the print head is otherwise attempted to be moved beyond the range of the printer. Every GPIO on the BeagleBone Black is capable of producing an interrupt to the main processor such that it can get notification quickly. Perhaps more importantly, several of the GPIOs have extremely low-latency connections to the <a href="http://elinux.org/Ti_AM33XX_PRUSSv2">PRU 32-bit 200MHz microcontrollers on-chip</a>. These dedicated controllers are able to update the BeagleBone peripherals in real-time, without being distracted by other tasks running within the Linux environment.</p>
<p>These PRUs are especially useful in talking to the stepper motor drivers that need to be given pulse trains telling them when to step forward or backward. With the real-time tasks off-loaded to the PRUs, it is even possible to use a high-level language like <a href="http://hipstercircuits.com/pypruss-a-simple-pru-python-binding-for-beaglebone/">Python to feed the pulse-train data</a>.</p>
<h2>Electronics</h2>
<p>This selection is a bit more difficult with <a href="http://bb-lcnc.blogspot.com/p/hardware-capes.html">many makers of competitive electronics</a> constantly providing minor updates to add one minor feature or another. The good news is that you can grab a solution today and reuse the rest of your system as you make incremental electronics improvements moving forward. For now, I've chosen the BeBoPr-Plus because it was easy for me to obtain, but keep an eye out for the <a href="http://replicape.com/">Replicape</a> from <a href="http://hipstercircuits.com/">Hipster Circuits</a> as I expect <a href="https://vimeo.com/77453708">Thing Printer</a> to be available any day now.</p>
<p><a href="http://circuitco.com/support/images/thumb/c/ce/BeBoPrBlack.jpg/300px-BeBoPrBlack.jpg"><img src="http://circuitco.com/support/images/thumb/c/ce/BeBoPrBlack.jpg/300px-BeBoPrBlack.jpg" border="0" alt=" "></a></p>
<p><a href="http://circuitco.com/support/images/thumb/c/ce/BeBoPrBlack.jpg/300px-BeBoPrBlack.jpg"></a>For more information about the BeBoPr, consider visiting the <a href="http://forum.bebopr.info/">BeBoPr forum</a>.</p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>In future posts, we'll look at the Huxley assembly and software running on BeagleBone Black. In the meantime, why not give it a try on your own?</p>
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jkridner.wordpress.com06 Nov 2013 20:06:56 UTC2013-10-08-project-spotlight-the-deckhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-08-project-spotlight-the-deck/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-08-project-spotlight-the-deck/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br> The Deck</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
Phil Polstra had a problem. He had a vision for a portable
penetration testing (pentesting) and forensics device, but he didn’t
have the technology he would need to do it. One fateful day at Maker
Faire Detroit, Polstra found himself right next to Jason Kridner,
who was showing off the (then) new BeagleBoard-xM. “This was my
first introduction to the Beagles. I was very impressed with the xM
and thought I might use them in some future project,” said Polstra.
</p><p>
That day, “The Deck” started taking shape.
</p>
<p>
Polstra began creating a USB forensic device based on BeagleBoard-xM.
As he got into his project, he realized that the hardware was very
powerful and could handle more than the one simple task he had
running on it. He decided to work on creating a full penetrating
testing device with the forensic capabilities included. Polstra
said, “I became so immersed in developing a penetration testing
Linux distribution that I almost forgot to implement the forensics
piece!”
</p>
<p>
The original version of the Deck ran on a BeagleBoard-xM attached to
a monitor, keyboard and mouse, or to a touchscreen. Polstra
installed a portable version in a Buzz Lightyear lunch box with a
wireless presenter keyboard/mouse, USB hub, network switch and
wireless adaptor.
</p>
<p>
<table>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Kku1HLG.jpg" WIDTH=165 HEIGHT=221 alt="1" /></td>
<td><img src="http://i.imgur.com/BkgHRiz.jpg" alt="2" /></td>
</tr>
</table> </P><p></p><p>
The Deck can be used to replace a desktop or laptop system used by an
information security professional conducting a penetration test. The
Deck can also be used as a drop box system. Thanks to its small size
and low power requirements, a device running The Deck is easily
planted and can run for days off battery power. Unlike many other
drop box options, The Deck provides every tool a penetration tester
could possible want.
</p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/DggiVZn.png" WIDTH=576 HEIGHT=324
<p></p><p>
The true power of The Deck comes when multiple devices are used in
coordination. An army of drones running The Deck can perform
coordinated attacks with a command console that is up to a mile
away. The drones may also be separated from each other with
distances up to a mile. Penetration tests can now be performed
poolside at the hotel down the street instead of in the back of a
suspicious van in the parking lot.
</p>
<p>
There is even an aerial drone running The Deck available. The drone
can be used as a single attack device, as a router for drones, or as
a combination. The aircraft can be flown as an airplane and flown
around a target for initial reconnaissance. It is also capable of
vertical flight, takeoffs and landings. This capability allows the
drone to fly in, land on the roof of a target, hack the target and
then fly away.
</p>
<p>
You may have already heard of “The Deck.” This device has already
made the news at
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzqJeCVK8Wc">
44CON</a>,
<a href="https://media.blackhat.com/eu-13/videos/eu-13-Polstra-mesh-stalkings.mp4">
Black Hat Europe</a>,
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHJSekw-n3Q">
DEFCON</a>, and GrrCON, where many editors (and even wishful
employers!) have taken notice of the project.
The Deck has truly taken the industry by storm,
inspiring lots of picture-taking, tweeting and texting. Polstra
attributes this to the fact that The Deck is flexible as well as a
small fraction of the cost of commercial drop boxes. Someone can get
started with The Deck running on multiple devices for less than
$200, making it attractive to a wide audience of infosec
professionals. “Another way to look at it is that I can build an
army with more than a dozen devices and an aerial drone for less
than the cost of a MacBrook Pro.”
</p>
<p>
Polstra also says that The Deck is one of the first projects where
small computer boards are being pushed to do something more than
just blink a couple of LEDs as well as one of the first involving
multiple devices coordinated via wireless. “The standard model seems
to be one penetration tester sitting at a laptop attacking a
network. The ability to deploy multiple devices and remove yourself
a comfortable distance from the target really opens up the
possibilities of doing penetration tests.”.
</p>
<p>
The Deck runs on BeagleBoard-xM, BeagleBone, and now, BeagleBone
Black, all based on TI Sitara ARM processors. The portable unit uses the 7” touchscreen from
<a href="http://www.BeagleBoardToys.com/">
BeagleBoardToys.com</a>. For a keyboard and mouse, he uses the Favi
wireless presenter keyboard/mouse/laser pointer units, which can be
found online for about $25. For wireless pentesting, he uses the
Alfa AWUS036H adapters because they are cheap, reliable and
compatible. Drone communication is via the 802.15.4 Xbee/Zigbee
modules from Digi .
</p>
<p>
“When BeagleBone Black came out, I was elated. Now I had an even
more powerful board with HDMI output at half the price of the
original BeagleBone. The total cost for a complete device based on
the BBB was actually less than what it would cost to attempt to obtain
nearly the same results on similar low-cost boards. The HDMI output
was also a big plus as I now had a device that could be used as a
drone or a desktop replacement. Getting the same performance from a
$45 BeagleBone Black as what I was used to seeing from the $149
BeagleBoard-xM was also pretty sweet,” said Polstra. He also credits
the BeagleBoard.org community for offering him support while he was
creating his own Linux distribution.
</p>
<p>
Polstra isn’t done with The Deck yet. At the moment, he is
working on a cape for connecting the Xbee radios as well as a
pwnage cape that would do Xbee and have a USB hub and network
switch. Also on the list of future innovations is a cape for
operating the aerial drone. He also would like to use a BeagleBone
Black computer to replace the autopilot board in the Quadshot
aircraft he is using to build his aerial drone. In a perfect world,
he says he would develop more of a true unmanned aerial vehicle. “I
would like to use a GPS and set of sensors to allow the drone to
automatically fly itself to the target and/or circle it. I would
also like to install some sensors that would allow the drone to fly
away when someone approaches it.”
</p>
<p>
No doubt, Phil Polstra will be one maker we will continue to follow.
You can check out his blog at <a href="http://polstra.org/">
Polstra.org</a> for more information
or updates about The Deck. You can also follow him <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ppolstra/">
(@ppolstra)</a> on
Twitter. And, stay tuned for his book called <i>Hacking and Pentesting
with Low-Power Devices</i> that is due out next summer!
</p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com05 Nov 2013 15:48:02 UTC2013-11-05-project-spotlight-grannycamhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-05-project-spotlight-grannycam/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-11-05-project-spotlight-grannycam/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br> GrannyCam</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
The holidays are around the corner, and with them come the fun and
excitement of big family gatherings. However, a lot of families are
spread across the country and not able to get together for the
holidays. That’s why Charles Hamilton developed GrannyCam, a safe,
durable videophone that his kids can use to stay in touch with their
grandparents, not only during the holiday season but throughout the
year. In September, the device received great response and an
Editor’s Choice Blue Ribbon from Make Magazine at Maker Faire New
York.
</p><p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/mTR7tVH.jpg" WIDTH=384 HEIGHT=512
</p>
<p>
GrannyCam is a wireless, portable, one-touch videophone designed to
be extremely simple and friendly to operate so seniors and their
young grandchildren can video chat anytime. “The project grew from
observing my mother and two-year-old son, who struggled with the
typical tools—smartphones, computers, tablets —available for speaking
to one another. For my mom, now in her 70s, the tools currently
available are an enormous challenge: too feature-laden, too complex.
For my son, the tools are also challenging, but for slightly
different reasons: too easily broken or disconnected, too expensive
to handle unsupervised, too fraught with concerns over privacy,” said
Charles. GrannyCam enabled Charles’s little boy to speak to his
grandma without help so that they can more easily keep in touch.
“GrannyCam provides a quick and easy way to share the latest progress
in our son’s development and provides an opportunity for increased
socialization and improvements in our toddler’s speech.”
</p>
<p>
GrannyCam’s external design is friendly for both grandmas and
toddlers. The hardware is covered in a soft, crocheted shell. A
physical button includes an oversized “arcade-style” button for both
initiating and accepting a chat session. The button also flashes to
alert an end user that they have an incoming call.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/V8EuQSB.jpg" WIDTH=367 HEIGHT=490
</p>
<p>
The current GrannyCam prototype is built around the
Sitara-processor-based BeagleBone Black
open-source computer, which connects to an LCD screen, a webcam and
a sound card. Devices communicate with each other over Wi-Fi
(dongled) via open-source VoIP/SIP software. No cellular connection
is planned as part of the design roadmap. Power supply is currently
AC, though one of Charles’s next goals is to upgrade to rechargeable
DC. Configuration of the devices is done remotely via command line
or browser.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/y7cd8Hg.jpg" WIDTH490 HEIGHT=367
</p>
<p>
Charles says he chose the BeagleBone Black to power GrannyCam
because its high performance enables delivery of simultaneous voice
and video for chat sessions, and its truly open source design
provides significant advantages for the long-term design criteria of
the device. After trying out Ångström and Debian distributions,
Charles finally settled on Ubuntu 12.04 as it is the most stable in
handling the video chat client software. Charles said he is
currently also investigating a port of Tizen onto BeagleBone Black
with a port of a SIP client package as well. He is hoping these
options may lead to a better solution with higher data throughput,
viz., smoother video and better audio quality.
</p>
<p>
Charles was able to rapidly prototype GrannyCam and is now
generating user feedback and gauging interest in the device as a
potential product. His long-term vision for GrannyCam is to create
a product that is scalably manufactured and leverages open-source
hardware and software. The product path includes a design for a
modular platform that can add sensors to make the device a more
integrated part of the home monitoring landscape for seniors.
</p>
<p>
For more information about GrannyCam, visit
<a href="http://hudsonwerks.com/current-projects/grannycam">
http://hudsonwerks.com/current-projects/grannycam/</a>.
You can also check out Charles’s blogs on <a href="http://hudsonhardwear.tumblr.com/">
DIY electronics and hardware products</a> as well as
<a href="http://uxhealth.tumblr.com/">tech trends in health and wellness</a>.
</p>
<p>
</p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com05 Nov 2013 15:47:41 UTC2013-10-29-project-spotlight-bbothttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-29-project-spotlight-bbot/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-29-project-spotlight-bbot/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br> BBot robot</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
What’s your perfect vacation? Mine involves sitting out by the pool
under the sun as people deliver me ice-cold drinks. Andy Gikling
seems to have a similar dream, and he figured out a way to live the
good life every weekend—by developing the BBot robot!
</p><p>
The BBot is an open source, remote-controlled drink serving robot.
This “cooler camel” puts a cooler on a mini trailer and delivers
drinks to people at the pool. As Andy put it, “Why not have a robot
go get the drinks? It’s 2013 people!” And with the ability to haul
30-40 lbs, BBot keeps the drinks flowing. This robot does more than
just deliver drinks. It can talk to you, see the world around it and
even display drink prices and beer advertisements on the screen. One
very unique feature is that when people try to steal drinks, the
robot kicks on its absurdly loud alarm system.<p></p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/WBwyHff.jpg" WIDTH=336 HEIGHT=554
</p>
<p>
Andy used 900 MHz XBee radios to transport remote control data from
the Microsoft .NET GUI to BeagleBone Black. XBee connectivity
enables very long range control, making it possible to “order” drinks
from miles away. “The XBee radios were a treat to finally work with,”
said Andy. “They are so cool and simple to use.”
</p>
<p>
The BeagleBone Black computer is the brain of the device. It parses
the data and routes it to the various control systems on the robot.
“There’s nothing like it with as much computing power, flexibility,
and size of active community at the $45 price point,” said Andy.
“I needed the vast number if I/O found on BeagleBone Black for my
robot. I love how small it is too!” It also provided Andy with a
great way to learn more about Linux and C++. “Although BeagleBone
Black is rather new, there are an amazing number of sources on the
Internet that show you how to do common things,” said Andy. He
specifically credited <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/DerekMolloyDCU">
Derek Molloy’s videos</a> for helping him go from
“zero to hero” with some of the software development challenges he
faced.
</p>
<p>
Andy stacked a <a href="http://valentfx.com">ValentFX</a> FPGA cape
on top of BeagleBone Black to
provide a robust means of low-level hardware interfacing.
</p>
<p>
Andy coded the names of the classes and variables to be
anthropomorphic. For example, rather than calling the code that runs
the robot’s wheels “Motors.cpp” or “Drives.cpp,” he named them
things like “Voice.cpp” and “Legs.cpp.” Functions might be “Walk
int speed );” instead of “Drive ( int speed );.” The GUI follows the
same trend, with the main window user controls named things like
“eye ball,” “legs,” and “voice.” Each control communicates with one
of BBot’s systems. Another cool feature of the GUI is that the user
can connect it to a Leap Motion controller so that the robot can be
driven by a simple wave of the hand above the sensor!
</p>
Andy says that the robot has a fairly simple mechanical design. The
main chasse consists of some simple Plexiglas disks stacked on top
of each other with threaded steel rods, nuts and washers. Everything
for the mechanical assembly can be purchased at a hardware store.
<p>
</p>
It seems like BBot already has it all, but Andy has plans to keep
adding features to the platform. He would like to add a precision
pan/tilt camera system and incorporate a tracking algorithm called
<a href="http://personal.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/Z.Kalal/tld.html">
TLD</a> so that the robot can follow its user around. He is also
contemplating having the main data, video and audio link run
through the cell network so he can approach people on the street and
offer them a free soda from a friendly and seemingly autonomous
robot!
<p></p>
Want your own BBot? (We do too!) Working source code, photos, video
and documentation can be found at <a href="https://github.com/andygikling/BBot">
https://github.com/andygikling/BBot</a>.
<p></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com29 Oct 2013 14:18:34 UTC2013-10-22-project-spotlight-octoscrollerhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-22-project-spotlight-octoscroller/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-22-project-spotlight-octoscroller/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br> The Octoscroller</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
New York is one of the brightest places on Earth. Times Square is
definitely a large factor, but now a new BeagleBone Black-based
project—the Octoscroller—is adding to the glow.
</p><p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/VINl9ZE.jpgg" WIDTH=391 HEIGHT=170
</p>
<p>
The Octoscroller, which you may have seen at Maker Faire New York a
few weeks ago, is a project created by NYC Resistor’s Trammel Hudson
and Matt Mets. The Octoscroller is a classic message alert polygon
featuring eight 16x32 RGB LED matrix panels. It features LEDS at
eight to 16 levels of brightness for each color (producing
approximately 12-bit color). The userspace application renders
images into a shared memory frame buffer or can receive UDP packets
containing video images from the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-15-project-spotlight-disorient-pyramid/">Disorient Pyramid</a>
transmitter.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Oce4HhQ.jpg" WIDTH=397 HEIGHT=298
</p>
<p>
The BeagleBone Black open-source computer, based on TI's Sitara
AM335x processor, is the brains behind the operation. The LEDscape
custom firmware runs on the AM335x processor’s programmable real-time
unit (PRU)—two separate real-time microcontrollers built into the
die, with full access to the GPIO lines and cache-coherent access to
the main memory. The <a href="https://github.com/osresearch/LEDscape/blob/master/matrix.p">
LEDscape custom firmware</a> allows the user
application render into a frame buffer, which is then driven to the
Octoscroller’s panels by the PRU.
</p>
<p>
Trammel and Matt purchased the <a href= "http://www.adafruit.com/products/420">
16×32 RGB panels</a> on the Octoscoller
from Adafruit Industries. The panels are very inexpensive since they
require continuous refresh by an external driver. With LEDscape,
BeagleBone Black can drive up to four chains of four panels, each at
0 percent CPU load. The panels are built as six parallel shift
registers, each with 32 bits and 12 16-channel constant current LED
drivers. The connectors have six data inputs and six control inputs
each: F1, G1, B1, R2, G2 and B2; and A, B, C, CLK, LTC and OE. The
three address select lines (A, B and C) select which two rows are
currently displayed. On each falling edge of the CLK line, a new bit
is shifted in on the six data inputs. On the falling edge of the LAT
line, the new data is latched and, when OE is held low, displayed.
To save on GPIO lines, the PRU shares the control lines between all
output chains and only needs the six additional data lines per
chain. If the HDMI hardware is disabled, four chains can be driven
by a single BeagleBone Black. The panels and BeagleBone Black are
powered by a <a href= "http://www.adafruit.com/products/658">
5V 10A DC supply</a>.
</p>
<p>
If you missed Trammell and Matt’s Octoscroller at Maker Faire New
York, find out more about it from Trammell’s
<a href="http://www.nycresistor.com/2013/09/12/octoscroller/">recent blog post</a>.
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><iframe class="vine-embed" src="https://vine.co/v/h17j6QuqXxP/embed/simple" width="695" height="695" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true"></iframe><script async src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com29 Oct 2013 14:05:49 UTC2013-10-15-project-spotlight-disorient-pyramidhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-15-project-spotlight-disorient-pyramid/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-15-project-spotlight-disorient-pyramid/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br> Disorient Pyramid</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
When you think of Pyramids in the middle of the desert, you think of
Egypt—not Nevada. The Disorient Pyramid, which was on display at
Burning Man 2013 this year in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, is
changing all that.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/N7s3sDI.jpg" WIDTH=518 HEIGHT=345
</p>
<p>
This year at Burning Man, the Disorient Camp hosted a 23-foot tall
pyramid with more than half a kilometer of LED strips. Several
artists, including Disorient founder Leo Villareal and Fresno Idea
Works’ Jacob Joaquin, designed patterns for the panel. Designs
included the double helix of DNA, wiggling snakes and abstract
patterns. The pyramid could be seen from almost everywhere on the
playa, helping people find the camp and making it a popular place to
gather.
</p>
<p>
A Sitara-based BeagleBone Black open-source computer running
LEDscape drove each face of the pyramid, slicing the images into
individual panels. BeagleBone Black then sent each piece to four
Teensy 3.0 USB development boards, which drove eight LED strips on
each panel.
</p>
<p>
A Toughbook ran the pyramidTransmitter code, which rendered the
animation frames to 24-bit bitmaps and sent them to the network via
USD.
</p>
<p>
The pyramid’s tall panels were powered by 5V 40a power supplies,
and the smaller panels were powered by 5V 30A power supplies. The
heat and dust caused several of the power supplies to fail, leading
the team to do some ad hoc maintenance during Burning Man.
Nevertheless, the Disorient Pyramid and its 16,000 LEDs gave quite a
show during Burning Man!
</p>
<p>
NYC Resistor has some great pictures of this project at <a href="http://www.nycresistor.com/2013/09/05/disorient-pyramid">
http://www.nycresistor.com/2013/09/05/disorient-pyramid/</a>.
For more information about the Disorient camp, visit <a href="http://wiki.disorient.info">
http://wiki.disorient.info/</a>
</p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com15 Oct 2013 14:38:39 UTC2013-10-05-arduinotre-demonstrated-at-makerfaire-romehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-05-arduinotre-demonstrated-at-makerfaire-rome/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-05-arduinotre-demonstrated-at-makerfaire-rome/<h1>Arduino TRE demonstrated at Maker Faire Rome</h1>
<p>#ArduinoTre enables Web-based programming of all your sensors http://bit.ly/18FvhfC</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Having fun showing off <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ArduinoTRE&amp;src=hash">#ArduinoTRE</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23MakerFaireRome&amp;src=hash">#MakerFaireRome</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/arduino">@arduino</a> booth <a href="http://t.co/nOdmCxmVJC">http://t.co/nOdmCxmVJC</a> <a href="http://t.co/cZTsWa5Iyd">pic.twitter.com/cZTsWa5Iyd</a></p>&mdash; Jason Kridner (@Jadon) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jadon/statuses/386516256683474944">October 5, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>jkridner.wordpress.com05 Oct 2013 22:24:40 UTC2013-10-03-beagleboardorg-collaborates-with-arduinohttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-03-beagleboardorg-collaborates-with-arduino/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-03-beagleboardorg-collaborates-with-arduino/<h1>BeagleBoard.org collaborates in creation of new Arduino TRE</h1>
<p>Two open hardware pioneers have combined forces to bring the famously
easy-to-use experience of Arduino to a high-performance
ARM<sup>®</sup>-based Linux computer and prototyping platform derived from
the open hardware designs of BeagleBoard.org and Arduino Leonardo. As an open
hardware project, BeagleBoard.org's collaboration with Arduino helps to advance
accessible technology for artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone interested in
creating interactive objects or environments everywhere.</p>
<h2>Arduino familiarity, freed from the tether of a laptop</h2>
<p>For many projects that previously required an external computer, the Arduino
TRE will provide all the necessary tools on one small board at an affordable
price with low power consumption. Programmable in Arduino's highly accessible
C-derived language with open source roots in Processing and Wiring, Arduino TRE
enables users to target real-time microcontroller tasks or Linux tasks using
open source libraries supporting vision and graphics functionality. Arduino TRE
provides a combination of instant familiarity with a monumental jump in
performance and available software to extend the experience.</p>
<p>Arduino TRE features the processor that powers BeagleBone Black, a TI
Sitara<sup>™</sup> AM335x. It also features a common footprint and
electronics as the Arduino Leonardo, enabling compatibility with a huge
variety of Arduino shields. Further integration includes a 4-port USB hub for
hosting a large number of standard USB peripherals, a 2-port USB hub on the
client side for simultaneous access to both integrated processors on-board, a
stereo audio codec with standard 1/8th" stereo speaker and line-input jacks, a
dedicated XBee connector for wireless communications and a full-sized HDMI
connector.</p>
<p>See the pictures below and the post on <a href="http://arduino.cc/Tre">arduino.cc</a>
for additional preview information.</p>
<img src="/static/images/tre/IMG_1241_smaller.jpg" /><br />
<img src="/static/images/tre/IMG_1242_smaller.jpg" /><br />
<img src="/static/images/tre/IMG_1244_smaller.jpg" /><br />
<img src="/static/images/tre/IMG_1246_smaller.jpg" /><br />
<h2>BeagleBoard.org is a community built on openness and a commitment to
longevity</h2>
<p>For BeagleBoard.org, this alliance is a true honor that we hope will
positively shape collaboration in the open hardware world moving forward,
growing the abilities of developers using open tools and advancing open
hardware platforms optimized for running the largest body of open source
software. While this will be an Arduino product, supported through the
Arduino forums, the BeagleBoard.org discussion group has consistently been a
place for lively discussion of all platforms and pride in BeagleBoard.org
workmanship is inescapable.</p>
<p>While Arduino TRE prototype development was initially done with a relatively
small group of collaborators, including the BeagleBoard.org Foundation, the
plan is to now move quickly into an open development phase where broad
community feedback and contributions will play a critical role in the final
development of the product. Because of this, we can't say exactly when the
final version of the product will ship, but developers can look to be fully
informed of ongoing development work in the future so they can make informed
decisions on when to become active with their own projects.</p>
<p>We find incredible satisfaction in this collaboration with Arduino and look forward to working with other individuals and groups who can see benefit in advancing open hardware based platforms optimized for running the most open source software and growing the body of developers using open tools, especially including all existing BeagleBoard.org platforms and the new Arduino TRE. We can't wait to find out what you will create!</p>
jkridner.wordpress.com03 Oct 2013 20:06:46 UTC2013-10-01-project spotlight-facebook-like-counterhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-01-project+spotlight-facebook-like-counter/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-10-01-project+spotlight-facebook-like-counter/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black project spotlight:<br> Facebook “Like” Counter</h1>
<p>By Tara Stratton</p>
<p>
Here’s something we are sure you will ‘Like.’ While at Maker
Faire Bay Area this year, we gave away a few BeagleBone Black
open-source computers to some lucky faire attendees. We heard back
from one of the winners, Christopher Berg, about a creative but
functional project he’s created on the board over the past few
months that would make Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg quite
proud.
</p><p>
Christopher made a Facebook “Like” Counter for his wife—an author
who was in the middle of writing her first romance novel and was
interested in tracking the number of ‘Likes’ on her Facebook page.
His device gives his wife a readout of Facebook Likes that is easily
readable and constantly updating. According to Christopher, many of
his projects are inspired by his family—his kids have been the
beneficiaries of many of his projects. (Cool side note—check out
the <a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/Childs-Quorra-Tron-Costume/">
Quorra from Tron costume </a> he made his daughter for Halloween!)]
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/LT9NDkB.jpg" WIDTH=480 HEIGHT=272
</p>
<p>
The Facebook Like Counter uses the JSON interface provided by
Facebook to count the number of Likes for a page. Once it reads the
value, the counter updates the display using a simple bit-bang SPI
interface.
</p>
<p>
“It’s currently a really simple setup, but I’m planning on expanding
it to provide more metrics, including books sold, Twitter followers,
etc.,” said Christopher.
</p>
<p>
The part count for the project is really low. Christopher used the
BeagleBone Black open-source computer (of course) as well as some
jumper wires and a four-digit, seven-segment display that he found
on eBay through some friends at <a href="http://forum.43oh.com/topic/2583-spi-4-digit-7-segment-displays/">43oh.com</a>.
The display uses a PT6961 driver from Oasis. Christopher
noted the display is “dead-easy to control and has a low pin-count.
A few simple SPI commands and you’re good to go.”
</p>
<p>
But why BeagleBone Black? Christopher said he had his eye on
BeagleBone for a while.
</p>
<p>
“When the new version came out, including a price drop — I had to
have one,” he said.
</p>
<p>
After years of experience developing projects such as an electronic
etch-a-sketch, a <i>Bluetooth</i>®-controlled RC car and even a retro VFD
tube clock on several of TI’s development boards, including his
favorite MSP430™ Value Line LaunchPad as well as the Tiva™ C Series
LaunchPad and MSP430FR5739 FRAM Experimenter Board, he felt
comfortable picking up the TI Sitara™ AM335x processor-based
BeagleBone Black computer. In addition, the Ethernet on BeagleBone
Black came in handy for this project.
</p>
<p>
“When you need a network-enabled board, there’s really no easier way
to go,” Christopher said.
</p>
<p>
With several years of experience developing on TI’s microcontroller-
based LaunchPads, Christopher admitted that he faced a challenge
with this project since he knew almost nothing about Linux. However,
he said that the Ångström distribution that comes loaded on
BeagleBone Black helped him get the project going without having too
much to learn. He used the Cloud9 IDE that comes pre-installed and
was able to use JavaScript—something he’s already familiar with
since he is a Web developer. Once he started working with the on-
board software, he was able to get the project up and running fairly
quickly.
</p>
<p>
“I have absolutely no electronics training, but I’m a great example
that with the right tools, almost anyone can create these types of
projects,” said Christopher.
</p>
<p>
What’s next on Christopher’s list of DIY projects? He said he’s
always wanted to create a Hexapod using a BeagleBone Black and a 3D
printer. Based on his track record, we can assume it will be awesome!
</p>
<p>
More details about Christopher’s Facebook Like Counter are available
at <a href="http://forum.beaglefu.com/topic/124-facebook-like-counter-7-segment-display-and-cloud9/">http://forum.beaglefu.com/topic/124-facebook-like-counter-7-segment-display-and-cloud9/</a></a>.
</p>
</div>
</div>jkridner.wordpress.com01 Oct 2013 19:55:24 UTC2013-08-21-embedded-computing-top-innovatorshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-08-21-embedded-computing-top-innovators/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-08-21-embedded-computing-top-innovators/<div>
<div style="float:left;width:60%;">
<h1>BeagleBone Black wins 2013 Top Embedded Innovator award</h1>
<p>
Embedded Computing Design magazine recently
announced its
<a href="http://embedded-computing.com/innovators/top-2013/#">
2013 Top Embedded Innovator awards.
</a>
BeagleBone Black was announced as a winner in the Top Products Silicon
category. Hardly surprising, given the waves BeagleBoard.org has
been making in the embedded industry for the
<a href="http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1319094">
last five years.
</a>
</p>
<p>
The August 2013 issue, in addition to announcing the award winners,
includes an article called
<a href="http://digital.embedded-computing.com/aug2013/aug2013#&pageSet=21">
DIY pushes open hardware from kindergarten to Kickstarter.
</a>
This article looks a bit at some of the thoughts and platforms that
BeagleBoard.org has spawned. What an article like this can't easily
describe is the experience a designer has in prototyping their
concept and then bringing it to market. That story is most easily
told by projects like <a href="http://openrov.com">OpenROV</a> and
<a href="http://ninjablocks.com">Ninja Blocks</a>, both of which used BeagleBone to transform prototypes into products.
</p>
</div>
<div style="float:left;width:30%;padding:20px;">
<img src="/static/uploads/fixed_width_top-innovators580wide.jpg.jpeg"
width="100%" />
<br /><br />
<iframe width="300" height="169" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ciX08ysl6LE"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
</div>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
<br /><br />
<div>
<div style="float:left;width:250px;padding:10px;">
<iframe width="250" height="141" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FtXKypyE0g4"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<div style="float:left;width:250px;padding:10px;">
<iframe width="250" height="141" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HJqBG_qaRtU"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<div style="float:left;width:250px;padding:10px;">
<iframe width="250" height="141" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/bIvkerJr5wE"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
</div>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>jkridner.wordpress.com01 Oct 2013 15:16:20 UTC2013-09-24-quick-list-of-makerfaire-projectshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-09-24-quick-list-of-makerfaire-projects/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-09-24-quick-list-of-makerfaire-projects/<style>
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ul.mylist li {
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</style>
<h1>Quick list of BeagleBone projects I saw at World Maker Faire in New York</h1>
<p>There wasn't enough time to really discover all of the BeagleBone Black projects
at World Maker Faire in New York. I did post some quick pictures on
<a href="https://plus.google.com/102344295024422039483/posts/HCqixgCLWmc">Google+,</a>
but I barely had time to breathe at the Faire!
</p>
<ul class="mylist">
<li><a href="http://openrov.com/profiles/blogs/openrov-in-nyc-at-world-maker-faire"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-eFESQYVI3WE/Uj9z-XCkbjI/AAAAAAAAHEM/33ow0qXFRI8/w808-h606-no/IMG_0631.JPG" /><br />OpenROV</a> - Open hardware underwater robot</li>
<li><a href="http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1319591"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8igTn6FxwKs/Uj9z-Rp-_jI/AAAAAAAAHC4/zlPoUAtcuzo/w455-h606-no/IMG_0631.JPG" /><br />Hoboken MakerBar Orbital Rendersphere</a> - Spinning persistence of vision globe</li>
<li><a href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/grannycam/"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-lomQac9SZh0/Uj9z-RAx-1I/AAAAAAAAHDc/tOq1zJYvfdw/w455-h606-no/IMG_0677.JPG" /><br />GrannyCam</a> - Video chat for Grandma/Grandkids</li>
<li><a href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/crystal-archway/"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Hv2rueHNuEQ/Uj9z-TXA26I/AAAAAAAAHB8/v8YKwsHuwuU/w455-h606-no/IMG_0677.JPG" /><br />Matt Mets' Crystal Gateway</a> - Sculpture covered in LEDs</li>
<li><a href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/tempo-automation/"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-C4mxk7YvApU/Uj9z-R8i0SI/AAAAAAAAHCE/d5xJRYO3420/w808-h606-no/IMG_0631.JPG" /><br />Tempo Automation Electronics Factory</a> - Desktop electronics manufacturing robot</li>
<li><a href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/tinyg-opensource-industrial-grade-motion-control/">TinyG - Motion control board adds web interface through BeagleBone Black</a></li>
<li><a href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/bbot-the-beaglebone-fpga-remote-control-robot/"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-McMcjq1ClVM/Uj9z-ZdsXdI/AAAAAAAAHCw/sOTieXWb2Yo/w455-h606-no/IMG_0631.JPG" /><br />BBot</a> - BeagleBone + FPGA remote control robot</li>
<li><a href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/logi-family-fpga-development-platform/"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-S3DaFDDtzdU/Uj9z-cOc5rI/AAAAAAAAHCI/NHMgsjtfA2o/w455-h606-no/IMG_0631.JPG" /><br />Logi-family</a> - FPGA development cape for BeagleBone Black</li>
<li><a href="http://hackaday.com/2013/09/19/beaglebone-black-does-cnc-with-ramps/"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-85DMECoO538/Uj9z-TXuo6I/AAAAAAAAHDg/J00b-a7Ux9Q/w455-h606-no/IMG_0631.JPG" /><br />RAMPS adapter cape</a> - Connect a CNC or RAMPS controller to BeagleBone Black</li>
<li><a href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/jolly-roger-labs/"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XdN0qJ-iIXM/Uj9z-UAZuCI/AAAAAAAAHCY/8PtEy6acoIk/w808-h606-no/IMG_0631.JPG" /><br />Jolly Roger Labs</a> <a href="http://rosettashield.com/">Rosetta Shield</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.typeamachines.com/">Type A Machines also showed of a BeagleBone Black based 3D printer</a></li>
</ul>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
<p> <br>
<br>
<br> There were also at least 10 talks that had some coverage of BeagleBone Black!
Makers are discovering what out-of-box software, a higher-performance processor running Linux,
a great set of low-level hardware interfaces supported by high-levle software and
on-board dedicated-to-real-time microcontrollers can do for them!
</p>jkridner.wordpress.com25 Sep 2013 19:48:36 UTC2013-07-30-Boris-birthday-weekendhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-07-30-Boris-birthday-weekend/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-07-30-Boris-birthday-weekend/<h1>Weekend at Boris'</h1>
<p>It has been a busy week for BeagleBoard.org, which has now been around for five years!
Drew Fustini of
Element14 was nice enough to bring cake to the Southeast Michigan Friends of
Boris (the Beagle) meet-up. A notable point of discussion was the
fact that BeagleBoard.org got its name from Gerald's dog Jake, but yet the
cartoon mascot for BeagleBoard.org was named 'Boris' by Philip who paid to get
the logo created. Seems like it is the little things that give character
to a community.
</p>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/117542001281850354871/albums/posts/5906284058430750962?pid=5906284058430750962&oid=117542001281850354871">
<img src="/static/uploads/boris_cake.jpg" width="60%" />
</a>
<p>Drew was hanging around to record some tutorials from the hands-on workshops
on BeagleBone Black at Maker Faire Detroit. We estimate about 100 people
went through the self-paced tutorials with help from Drew and volunteers
from the local <a href="http://www.i3detroit.com/">i3 Detroit</a> hackerspace.
The videos for the tutorials will eventually be posted at
<a href="http://beagleboard.org/makerfairedetroit2013">
http://beagleboard.org/makerfairedetroit2013
</a>.
</p>
<img align="right" src="/static/uploads/IMG_0379.JPG" width="20%" />
<p>A couple of BeagleBone-based projects won some awards at the show.
<a href="http://ppolstra.blogspot.com/">Dr. Phil Polstra of the University of
Dubuque Iowa</a> was mentioned by Dale Dougherty as demonstrating
<a href="http://makezine.com/magazine/maker-faire-detroit-the-midwest-at-its-best-what-we-hope-for-detroit/">
one of the top 10 signs of hope for Detroit
</a>
presented at the Faire with his Beagle in a Buzz Lightyear lunch box. I met
Phil at Maker Faire a couple of years back and he's been doing some amazing
things to teach people about computer security. As Dale mentions, Phil is a
great example of what can be done when the open source software world meets
the world of affordable open source hardware.
</p>
<p>Another award winning project of note was
<a href="http://makezine.com/2013/07/27/maker-faire-detroit-day-one/">Jeff McAlvay's</a>
<a href="http://tempoautomation.com/its-alive/">open
hardware pick-and-place machine</a> that runs
<a href="http://tempoautomation.com/using-node-js-to-control-manufacturing-robots-with-gcode/">Node.JS</a>
on BeagleBone to process design files into GCode, providing for independent
network-based operation. A pick-and-place machine will help you manufacture
electronics by taking the tiny components and positioning them on the board
for you. The machine in development is seeking to do a lot more than just
place the components, including cutting out the routes on the board and adding
the solder to it as well.
</p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-jsQF-xFdJM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>This week is also time for midterm evaluations for Google Summer of Code
projects where students are paid by Google to work on open source software
projects for the Summer, including 6 projects being mentored by BeagleBoard.org.
All of the students have now provided some running code, including for
<a href="http://prpplague.github.io/Energia/blog/2013/07/24/documentation-and-videos/">running Arduino sketches on BeagleBone Black</a>,
<a href="http://beagleboot.vdev.ro/?p=197">booting BeagleBone from an Android phone</a>,
<a href="http://beagleboard-gsoc13.blogspot.com/2013/07/sampling-analogue-signals-using-adc-on.html">improved ADC driver support</a>,
<a href="http://minix-i2c.blogspot.com/2013/07/looking-for-beta-testers-who-have.html">adding I2C support to Minix (including EDID support)</a>,
<a href="http://beagleros.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/hands-on-hardware">Robot Operating System (ROS) on Angstrom</a>, and
<a href="http://zecozephyr.github.io/2013/07/17/ponderings-upon-jtag">building soft peripherals with the PRU microcontrollers on BeagleBone Black</a>.
</p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLrqLsMlJSsZZv0jJNxexq_YSdXoCoLO_5" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>Pre-release Angstrom images are already being impacted by these projects,
including integration of ROS dependencies and
<a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/pull/48">ADC patches to provide for
continuous sampling and triggers</a>. Improvements are also occuring on the HDMI
support, additional firmware for USB wifi devices,
<a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/commit/e368aa375724861c113a221aeec99a4688299403">SD/MMC
support</a>, <a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/commit/8a908ca181a36848270af8a60f1ff9b954c24486">BeBoPr
3D printer cape support</a> and
even support to <a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/commit/5b570d7b7500c4aad19693c5b8de76bb9e4d1eba">turn
digital I/O pins controlled by the PRU into PWMs</a>.
</p>
<p>It is also now that projects by interns in the <a href="http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/2013_Intern_Design_Challenge">Texas
Instruments Intern Design Challenge</a> are being voted upon. Several of these
projectes included BeagleBone Black this summer, including <a href="http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2013/07/29/beaglebone-gamingcape/">the
BeagleBone Gaming Cape</a> that turns a BeagleBone Black into a handheld
gaming system capable of emulating other systems.
</p>
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<p>It's a very busy time and I can't wait until my next update with so much
going on! In the meantime, I did to a bit of a blog post looking back through
the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-07-29-Five-years-of-DIY-hacks/">
eyes of Hack-a-Day.</a>
</p>jkridner.wordpress.com30 Jul 2013 21:22:02 UTC2013-07-29-Five-years-of-DIY-hackshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-07-29-Five-years-of-DIY-hacks/
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BeagleBoard.org celebrates 5 years of enabling Linux DIY hacks
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span class="il" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">BeagleBoard</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">.</span><span class="il" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">org</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> launched with </span><a href="http://www.digikey.com/us/en/press-release/beagle_board.html" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">support of Digi-Key</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> in 2008 and DIYers quickly adopted </span><span class="il" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">BeagleBoard</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> for </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2009/10/30/xbmc-running-on-arm/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">migrating XBMC to ARM</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">, building </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2010/01/17/hackaday-links-january-17th-2010/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">GPS accurate down to the centimeter</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">, </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2010/02/11/veteran-robot-features-eight-legs-and-beagleboard/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">eight-legged robots</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> and creating </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2010/05/10/fps-controller-hacks-getting-easier/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">controller hacks</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">. In 2010, </span><a href="http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">Google Summer of Code students</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> contributed numerous projects to help other open source developers, including </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2013/07/02/usb-sniffing-with-the-beagleboard-xm/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">sniffing USB traffic</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> and </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2010/05/27/gsoc-takes-on-xbmc-on-the-beagleboard/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">XBMC performance optimizations</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">. GSoC students are back at it again in 2013, providing solutions for </span><a href="http://beagleboard.blogspot.com/2013/06/beagleboardorg-google-summer-of-code.html" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">booting BeagleBone from <span class="il">a</span>Nexus phone, running Arduino sketches and even building new peripherals out of an on-chip microcontroller</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">.</span><br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" /><br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" /><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">With the introduction of </span><a href="http://newscenter.ti.com/index.php?s=32851&item=123590" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank"><span class="il">BeagleBoard</span>-xM in 2010</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">, projects accelerated with </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2010/06/09/linux-tablet-built-around-a-beagleboard/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">homemade tablet computers</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">, </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2010/08/06/open-graphing-calculator-beagleboard-r/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">open graphing calculators</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">, </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2010/09/07/beagleboard-cluster/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">cluster computing in <span class="il">a</span>briefcase</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">,</span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2011/02/07/laptop-lcd-reused-in-beagleboard-project/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">repurposed laptop LCDs</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">, </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2011/03/28/your-robot-stand-in-has-arrived/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">remote presence</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> and </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2011/07/28/rc-car-and-beagle-board-mate-for-a-versatile-robot-build/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">versatile RC robots</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">, </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2011/09/19/space-camera-streams-data-during-flight/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">space cameras</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">, </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2011/10/12/usb-killswitch-turns-off-your-home-entertainment-bling-automatically/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">USB killswitches</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> and </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2011/10/26/huge-flexible-led-matrix-can-be-worn-almost-anywhere/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">wearable LED matrices</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">. </span><span class="il" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">BeagleBoard</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">-based wearables back in 2010 even provided </span><span class="il" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">a</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> </span><a href="http://hackaday.com/2010/07/30/elegant-wearable-computer/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;" target="_blank">strikingly similarity to today's Google Glass</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><a href="http://hackaday.com/2011/11/01/say-hello-to-our-little-friend-the-beaglebone/" target="_blank">BeagleBone launched in 2011</a> to the cheers of <a href="http://hackaday.com/2011/11/14/theres-a-lot-packed-into-this-beagleboard-controlled-rover/" target="_blank">robot</a> <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/01/12/robot-takes-voice-commands-via-open-source-csr/" target="_blank">makers</a> <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/01/31/turning-the-big-trak-into-a-turtle/" target="_blank">everywhere</a>, even robot makers looking to <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/can-a-robot-be-a-safe-and-cost-effective-alternative-to-guide-dogs/" target="_blank">replace guide dogs</a> and <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/12/08/bird-buggy-soothes-a-screeching-parrot/" target="_blank">soothe the everyday angry bird</a>, but<a href="http://ninjablocks.com/" target="_blank">inventiveness</a> wasn't limited to <a href="http://hackaday.com/2013/02/15/an-awesome-futuristic-all-in-one-robot-chassis/" target="_blank">awesome, futuristic robots</a>. The tiny, low-power processing solution enabled <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/03/06/monitoring-home-electricity-usage-via-a-tidy-wall-display/" target="_blank">tidy home power usage monitors</a>, <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/08/13/a-perpetually-powered-wireless-outpost/" target="_blank">off-the-grid wireless outposts</a>,<a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/qr-code-opens-doors-to-you/" target="_blank">QR code controlled door locks</a>, <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/11/01/beaglebone-powers-this-networked-led-marquee/" target="_blank">networked LED marquees</a>, <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/03/03/building-your-own-portable-3d-camera/" target="_blank">portable 3D cameras</a> and even <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/a-camera-that-describes-a-picture-for-you/" target="_blank">cameras that would print scene descriptions in words</a>. BeagleBone's portable performance was utilized for countless goals, including <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/03/26/brute-force-a-password-protected-pdf-using-the-beaglebone/" target="_blank">cracking passwords</a>, <a href="http://hackaday.com/2013/02/22/a-bitcoin-mining-example-for-the-beaglebone-with-an-fpga-shield/" target="_blank">manufacturing money</a> and <a href="http://hackaday.com/2013/03/15/deploying-an-open-source-pollution-monitoring-network/" target="_blank">helping to save the world from pollution</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">BeagleBone seemed to find <span class="il">a</span> surprising home in <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/03/07/vintage-vt100-terminal-computing-with-a-beaglebone/" target="_blank">retro computing</a>, <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/04/19/controlling-blinkenlights-with-modern-computers/" target="_blank">mimicking PDP11 blinkenlights</a> and <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/05/31/dot-matrix-printer-spits-out-any-tweet-mentioning-kwf/" target="_blank">saving dot-matrix printers from the dust bin</a>. This seemed to be an inspiration for inventive minds seeking to teach others about the more subtle capabilities the board is packing. The two, small 200MHz 32-bit microcontrollers on-board were used to <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/11/20/discrete-6502-processor-sucked-into-linux-by-a-beaglebone/" target="_blank">mimic external peripherals to <span class="il">a</span> discrete 6502 processor</a>, enabling more people to understand the capabilities of these independent units previously demonstrated performing <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/offloading-vga-generation-onto-a-coprocessor/" target="_blank">independent generation of VGA signals</a> using <span class="il">a</span> simple resistor ladder.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The tutorials continued with everything from <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/03/15/twiddling-an-led-using-the-beaglebones-embedded-linux/" target="_blank">twiddling an LED</a> and <a href="http://hackaday.com/2013/02/25/ubuntu-with-a-gui-on-a-beagleboard/" target="_blank">running Ubuntu with <span class="il">a</span> full GUI</a>, to <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/tricking-the-beaglebone-into-outputting-video/" target="_blank">extracting video signals</a> and <a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/05/18/teaching-beaglebone-to-play-with-lidd-displays/" target="_blank">wiring up your own LIDD displays</a>, even<a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/09/20/how-to-build-your-own-dedicated-pandora-radio/" target="_blank">building your own dedicated Pandora radio</a>. This is all before <a href="http://www.multivu.com/mnr/54046-beaglebone-black-open-source-1-ghz-linux-computer" target="_blank">BeagleBone Black launched</a>, boosting performance to 1GHz, adding on-board eMMC and HDMI and dropping the price down to $45.<br /><br />BeagleBone Black is just getting its legs underneath it in its initial production run of 125,000 units with around half of those shipped so far. Early adopters were able to share some of their creations at <a href="http://beagleboard.blogspot.com/2013/05/beaglebone-black-was-huge-hit-at-maker.html" target="_blank">Maker Faire</a>, including <a href="http://hackaday.com/2013/05/26/update-live-video-played-on-led-strip-display/" target="_blank">LED strips being used to display live video</a>. Beyond the obvious and popular lighting solutions, BeagleBone Black has found an early home in manufacturing solutions, especially with makers like Elias Bakken, who created the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/CapeContest/winners/" target="_blank">contest-winning Replicape 3D printer-enabling add-on board</a> and <span class="il">a</span> <a href="http://hackaday.com/2013/07/08/a-very-small-hdmi-display/" target="_blank">tiny HDMI display</a> for use with BeagleBone Black, and Charles Steinkuehler, who has created the <a href="http://bb-lcnc.blogspot.com/2013/07/machinekit-2013-07-13-available.html" target="_blank">MachineKit software image</a> containing LinuxCNC and Xenomi real-time Linux kernel. Both Elias and Charles have been steady contributors to the project of late and have helped enable several of the improvements making BeagleBone Black <span class="il">a</span> complete and easy to use solution for all sorts of makers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">As of the recent <a href="http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=Updating_The_Software" target="_blank">June 20th software release for BeagleBone Black</a>, significant improvements have been made since launch. Monitor support is greatly improved with better automated resolution setting and <span class="il">a</span> documented process for setting specific resolutions over the command-line or at boot-up, including resolutions up to 1920x1080 at 24fps. The node.js-based BoneScript library, used in such fun things as <a href="http://vimeo.com/60993092" target="_blank">multi-room physically interactive video games</a>, has several bug fixes and <span class="il">a</span> <a href="http://beagleboard.org/support/BoneScript" target="_blank">growing body of interactive wiring examples</a> that work within Chrome and Firefox browsers. Support for the on-board 32-bit microcontrollers called PRUs has been improved with an <a href="https://github.com/beagleboard/am335x_pru_package" target="_blank">updated assembler and documentation</a> supporting previously undocumented instructions, including multipliers, and hints have been made at <span class="il">a</span> C compiler being developed, including Pantelis Antoniou's example of <a href="https://github.com/pantoniou/testpru" target="_blank">using the PRU C compiler to add 32 additional channels of pulse-width modulation (PWM)</a>. The value of <a href="http://elinux.org/BeagleBone_and_the_3.8_Kernel" target="_blank">aggressively chasing the mainline kernel</a> is also being shown with simple command-line statements for enabling UARTs, SPI, I2C, CAN and more peripherals, including improved <a href="http://beaglebonecapes.com/" target="_blank">cape add-on board</a> support.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">With an <a href="http://openrov.com/" target="_blank">amazing community</a>, stand-out performance and capability, <span class="il">a</span> true open hardware approach that is sustainably profitable but not greedy, continuous demonstrated improvements and <span class="il">a</span> focus on <a href="http://beagleboard.org/bad-to-the-bone" target="_blank">educating aspiring engineers</a> and <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028116.do" target="_blank">hobbyists</a> alike, <span class="il">BeagleBoard</span>.<span class="il">org</span> has proven to be <span class="il">a</span> DIY force with which to reckon and an inspiration for makers everywhere. Happy Birthday Boris!</span></div>
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</div>jkridner.wordpress.com30 Jul 2013 21:20:53 UTC2013-07-16-beagleboardorg-gsoc-2013-updatehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-07-16-beagleboardorg-gsoc-2013-update/
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BeagleBoard.org GSoC 2013 update
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In the last <a href="http://beagleboard.blogspot.com/2013/06/beagleboardorg-google-summer-of-code.html">blog post</a>, the students and mentors were introduced and links were given to the projects. The Minix I2C project shared a video for the last post and has progressed as far as pushing initial I2C support into the Minix mainline. A couple of the other students have now provided some videos describing their projects.<br />
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First, the Beagle-ROS project...<br />
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...and now a bit on the project to add IIO support to the Linux mainline for the BeagleBone Black ADC...<br />
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The Userspace Arduino project has also made some excellent progress, <a href="http://prpplague.github.io/Energia/blog/2013/07/12/lots-of-cool-stuff/" target="_blank">demonstrating running Arduino sketches on BeagleBone Black</a>...<br />
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The BeagleBoard Android Boot project has also produced <a href="http://beagleboot.vdev.ro/?p=188" target="_blank">successful bootloading from a Nexus phone</a>.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:37:14 UTC2013-06-14-beagleboardorg-google-summer-of-codehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-06-14-beagleboardorg-google-summer-of-code/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-06-14-beagleboardorg-google-summer-of-code/<h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'>
BeagleBoard.org Google Summer of Code 2013 -- coding starts this Monday, June 17
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<p><a href="http://beagleboard.org/gsoc/">BeagleBoard.org</a> is just about to kick-off coding on our second time as a mentoring organization for Google Summer of Code. This is an amazing program that <i>pays</i> students for writing open source software over Summer. Seven (7) students will be participating in projects that advance the state of open source software for Beagle users and will earn them each US$5,000 if they are successful. Twenty-three (23) qualified mentors from the BeagleBoard.org community have volunteered to help the students reach their goals.</p>
<p>Each project has a page on BeagleBoard.org giving a bit of a description of the project linked in the table below. Each of those pages in turn links to blogs where the students will update the BeagleBoard.org community on their progress. Most of the daily collaboration will be happening on the <a href="webchat.freenode.net/?channels=beagle-gsoc">#beagle-gsoc IRC channel</a>, including weekly status meetings, which are all being <a href="http://logs.nslu2-linux.org/livelogs/beagle-gsoc/">logged</a>. The nicknames of each student and mentor are included in square brackets in the table below, so you can contact them with any feedback you might have. You might also choose to join the <a href="groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/beagleboard-gsoc">BeagleBoard-GSoC Google Group</a> for related announcements and additional technical discussion on the projects.</p>
<p>Each of the projects is rather interesting and you'll be able to read more about them here in the weeks to come. Scroll past the table below for a video describing one of the projects, the development of I2C drivers for the Minix operating system.</p>
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<th>Project</th>
<th>Student</th>
<th>Mentors (* = primary)</th>
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<td><a href="http://beagleboard.org/project/minix-i2c/">Minix I2C drivers for the BeagleBone Black</a></td>
<td>Thomas Cort (Heritage College in Canada) [tcort]</td>
<td>Kees Jongenburger* [keesj], Ben Gras [beng-nl], Frans Meulenbroeks [effem]</td>
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<td><a href="http://beagleboard.org/project/userspace-arduino/">Arduino for userspace Linux</a></td>
<td>Anuj Deshpande (Pune Institute of Computer Technology in India) [hatguy_] and Parav Nagarsheth (Nirma University in India) [anujdeshpande]</td>
<td>David Anders* [prpplague], Matt Porter [mdp], Andrew Bradford [bradfa], Luis Gustavo Lira [lglira]</td>
</tr>
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<td><a href="http://beagleboard.org/project/BBBabb/">Android-based boot system</a></td>
<td>Vlad Victor Ungureanu (Jacobs University Bremen in Germany) [vvu]</td>
<td>Vladimir Pantelic* [av500], Tom King [ka6sox], Kees Jongenburger [keesj]
</tr>
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<td><a href="http://beagleboard.org/project/PRUJTAG/">Software Defined Peripherals: JTAG/Debug via PRU</a></td>
<td>Jon Bailey (University of Waterloo in Canada) [jj2baile]</td>
<td>Tom King* [ka6sox], Andrew Bradford [bradfa], Pantelis Antoniou [panto], Hunyue Yau [ds2], Matt Ranostay [mranostay]</td>
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<td><a href="http://beagleboard.org/project/gsoc-13-adc/">IIO, ADC, PMIC, LCD debug/patchwork</a></td>
<td> Zubair Lutfullah Kakakhel (University of Leeds in UK) [ZubairLK]</td>
<td>Greg Kroah-Hartman* [gregkh], Koen Kooi [koen], Vladimir Pantelic [av500], Tom Rini [Tartarus], Laine Walker-Avina [Ceriand]</td>
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<td><a href="http://beagleboard.org/project/beagle-ros/">Beagle-ROS</a></td>
<td>Víctor Mayoral Vilches (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Spain) [vmayoral]</td>
<td>Koen Kooi* [koen], Khem Raj [khem]</td>
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<p>One of the students has already posted a video describing their project and all of the students will eventually provide video presentations of their projects, so stay tuned if you want to be video-spoon-fed.</p>
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<p>Thanks to Thomas for providing that video. Of course, there are several other individuals involved in supporting this year's Summer of Code, including, but certainly not limited to:<br />
Our mentors-at-large: Derek Molloy (general BeagleBone) [molloyd], Mans Rullgard (ARM) [mru], Karim Yaghmour (Android), Russ Dill [Russ], Jason Kridner (BeagleBoard.org GSoC administrator) [jkridner] and<br />
Our backup administrator (and all around amazing person): Cathy Wicks [cwicks].</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for their participation and support. Looking forward to an amazing Summer!<br />
--Jason</p>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:33:48 UTC2013-05-21-beaglebone-black-was-huge-hit-at-makerhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-05-21-beaglebone-black-was-huge-hit-at-maker/
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BeagleBone Black was a huge hit at Maker Faire!
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I'm on my way home from <a href="http://makerfaire.com/">Maker Faire</a> and I am still in awe that <a href="http://beagleboard.org/">Beagles</a> where everywhere! Clearly, <a href="http://beagleboard.org/black">BeagleBone Black</a> is quickly becoming the embedded computer of choice for makers of all types. To start, BeagleBone is on the cover of Make Magazine and the huge banners of the magazine cover at the show. Within the enclosure of the OpenROV open hardware underwater remotely operated vehicle kit and ocean exploring project, you can just make out the outline of an included BeagleBone!<br />
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&nbsp;<a href="http://blog.makezine.com/volume/make-34/" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://makezineblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/m34-cover.jpg?w=290&amp;h=376" style="height: 300px;" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gmiH4QSAz3Q/UZfsNoKM0XI/AAAAAAAAEgU/BcnH7puvRm4/w805-h604-no/C1629AFE-764F-4B1F-B9DA-6CC25B6F42F1.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gmiH4QSAz3Q/UZfsNoKM0XI/AAAAAAAAEgU/BcnH7puvRm4/w805-h604-no/C1629AFE-764F-4B1F-B9DA-6CC25B6F42F1.JPG" style="float: right; height: 300px;" /></a>
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Above on the left is the cover of Make Magazine and on the right is <a href="http://openrov.com/profile/1gupl83kvnk8f">Eric Stackpole</a> sharing<br />
with a young explorer at the show what the <a href="http://openrov.com/">OpenROV community</a> has made.</blockquote>
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Back on land, one of the physically largest, or at least tallest, exhibits at the show is also driven by BeagleBone. Benjamin James of <a href="http://coolneon.com/">coolneon.com</a> about his BeagleBone based LED wall. &nbsp;The wall consists of over 1,000 LEDs fed by an SPI serial port from BeagleBone. &nbsp;BeagleBone is also performing animations and he even has a massive scale Tetris implementation written by Christopher De Vries where kids share the controls and need to cooperate to succeed. &nbsp;He's also got a mode that uses another computer connected to a Kinect camera to feed information to the BeagleBone such that the LED wall can be "conducted" as if in a concert. &nbsp;Benjamin is a huge BeagleBone fan looking to bundle up his LEDs and BeagleBone-based controller so that anybody can make some incredible light displays.<br />
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/117542001281850354871/posts/SSARsJKq4p6" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pM5XK8LSCBY/UZp1hRtSWCI/AAAAAAABKI4/e3rQgP0z_Sg/w506-h380-o/photo.jpg" /></a>
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Above on the left is a picture of the BeagleBone-based LED exhibit to the left of a full concert stage. On the right is an interview I did with the maker, Benjamin James.</blockquote>
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Benjamin wasn't the only one showing off LED lighting solutions using BeagleBone and sharing source. &nbsp;Paul Stoffregen of DorkbotPDX out of Portland, Oregon has a BeagleBone Black based LED display solution fed by stomp pads connected to his affordable Teensy microcontroller modules, a webcam and his open source software. &nbsp;Openness and performance were huge factors for Paul as he tried using another popular low cost computer and found it was dropping frames. That non-Beagle computer simply didn't have the performance he needed and he found it dropping frames---all problems that went away using BeagleBone. &nbsp;Another factor for his choice is the consistent build quality he's found using boards from Circuitco and BeagleBoard.org. &nbsp;He did much of his development on his laptop computer and was able to move his code over to Beagle without any hassles in about half-a-day. &nbsp;He also notes that BeagleBone Black ships with the video-4-linux (V4L) drivers that enabled easy use of a webcam to drive his LED array. &nbsp;You can read more about his experience on his <a href="http://www.dorkbotpdx.org/blog/paul/maker_faire_2013" target="_blank">dorkbotpdx blog post</a>&nbsp;about getting ready for this event.<br />
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Above is a quick interview I did with&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pjrc.com/" target="_blank">Paul Stoffregen</a> about his BeagleBone Black based LED display.&nbsp;&nbsp;</blockquote>
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I was able to grab a couple of other quick interviews with BeagleBone Black users at Maker Faire, including Marcus Schappi of <a href="http://ninjablocks.com/" target="_blank">Ninja Blocks</a> and <a href="http://www.aerodynes.org/" target="_blank">Edouard Lafargue</a>&nbsp;who built a model train exhibit. &nbsp;Both of these users are running Ubuntu, perhaps the most popular desktop Linux distribution, on BeagleBone Black (as opposed to the Angstrom Distribution image shipped with the boards). &nbsp;Because BeagleBone Black runs armv7 instructions, it can run the latest Ubuntu builds for ARM. &nbsp;Both of these projects are focused on connecting sensors and controls to a web interface. There are great community write-ups on <a href="http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#Raring_13.04_armhf" target="_blank">getting Ubuntu installed on BeagleBone Black</a>.<br />
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On the left is an introduction to Ninja Blocks. In the middle is a quick interview I did with Marcus Schappi of Ninja Blocks at Maker Faire. On the right, Edouard Lafargue shows off his BeagleBone Black based web controlled train.</blockquote>
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In addition to the ability to run Ubuntu, Edouard chose to use BeagleBone Black thanks to the project's true open nature including an open hardware design where he can get all of the design materials and documentation, and not need to use any closed binary blobs to boot his hardware. Porting his application from his Mac to his BeagleBone Black was simply taking only about half a day.<br />
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<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BKj8RVLCEAAEK86.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BKj8RVLCEAAEK86.jpg" width="150" /></a>I spent much of my time at Maker Faire running around with my BeagleStache moustache camera running OpenCV. &nbsp;Below is a quick stache tweet I captured of Brian Jepson in the Maker Shed. &nbsp;While I was there, I also checked out the stock of BeagleBone Black. &nbsp;They didn't put out the BeagleBone Black boards until Sunday, but that didn't keep them from selling out before I managed to get back again. &nbsp;They also had a kit I haven't seen <a href="http://www.makershed.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=beaglebone+black&amp;Submit=Search" target="_blank">on-line</a> yet that was $65 and included a pre-release preview of Matt Richardson's book&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1449345379/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=bloghanerhead-20&amp;camp=0&amp;creative=0&amp;linkCode=as4&amp;creativeASIN=1449345379&amp;adid=1TXTRANBQVTT8H91D57B&amp;" target="_blank">"Getting Started with BeagleBone: Linux-Powered Electronic Projects With Python and JavaScript"</a>&nbsp;and several other goodies including multiple breadboards and LEDs. &nbsp;The kits sold out as well.<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>At <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23makerfaire">#makerfaire</a>? Give @<a href="https://twitter.com/jadon">jadon</a> your card for the chance to win @<a href="https://twitter.com/beagleboardorg">beagleboardorg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23beagleboneblack">#beagleboneblack</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23badtothebone">#badtothebone</a>! <a href="http://t.co/YxEgtDJBRO" title="http://twitter.com/BeagleStache/status/335788403264204800/photo/1">twitter.com/BeagleStache/s&#8230;</a></p>&mdash; Boris Houndleroy (@BeagleStache) <a href="https://twitter.com/BeagleStache/status/335788403264204800">May 18, 2013</a></blockquote>
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I had many great discussions with other people showing me their BeagleBoard.org related projects including stuff they had now and stuff they were creating. &nbsp;A tremendous thanks to Hunyue Yau for doing so much to educate people about BeagleBoard.org with his BeagleBone-based ProtoBone Android tablet prototype. Hunyue focused his booth on BeagleBoard.org activities and answered question after question after question about BeagleBoard.org and BeagleBone. He was also kind enough to share his space with a couple of volunteers from <a href="https://www.ansync.com/">Ansync Automation</a>, Sam Miller and Tom, who partnered up with <a href="http://www.uncannyvision.com/">Uncanny Vision</a> to demonstrate a BeagleBone-based robot using Ansync's motor controllers and Uncanny Vision's UncannyCV. They created a really cool and powerful color tracking robot that gave dozens of aspiring young makers joy in following them around on the expo floor and making its R2-D2 sound effects.<br />
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Above on the left is Hunyue Yau's <a href="http://beagleboard.org/project/ProtoBone/">ProtoBone BeagleBone-based Android tablet prototype</a>. On the right is a video of Tom describing the <a href="https://code.google.com/p/ansync-beaglebone/">Ansync BeagleBot</a>.</blockquote>
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Another huge thanks goes to Drew Fustini, who frequently played host to Jessica and I, introducing us to many of the great makers that he knows and bringing the whole Texas Instruments crew out to Jeri Ellsworth's Bring-a-hack event. Drew brought a hack he got from the BeagleBoard.org community: an RF spectrum analyzer running on BeagleBone Black with a USB connected $25 receiver.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G8YymlEHrgU/UZqL9bl7XqI/AAAAAAABKJk/187yjFBkujA/w805-h604-no/13+-+1" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G8YymlEHrgU/UZqL9bl7XqI/AAAAAAABKJk/187yjFBkujA/w805-h604-no/13+-+1" /></a>
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Above on the left is Drew Fustini. In the middle is a picture he took of the TIers going to Jeri's Bring-a-hack event. &nbsp;On the right is the <a href="http://www.oz9aec.net/index.php/beaglebone/480-rtlizer" target="_blank">RF spectrum analyzer</a> Drew demonstrated at the event.</blockquote>
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The whole experience was once in a lifetime and I never want to miss another Maker Faire. If you've ever thought about making something, <b>anything</b>, I really, really encourage you to register your idea on <a href="http://beagleboard.org/project">beagleboard.org/project</a>, tell people about it on <a href="https://plus.google.com/communities/104960311812236799231" target="_blank">Google+ </a>and the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/discuss" target="_blank">BeagleBoard.org Google Group</a> getting their collaboration as needed, then propose it to one or more of the upcoming US <a href="http://makerfaire.com/">Maker Faires</a> or even the inaugural <a href="http://www.blogger.com/makerfairerome.eu">Maker Faire Europe</a> in Rome still accepting applications until June 2nd. &nbsp;Happy Beagling!
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:30:47 UTC2013-02-25-beagleboardorg-at-elc-and-scalehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2013-02-25-beagleboardorg-at-elc-and-scale/
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BeagleBoard.org at ELC and SCaLE
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It has been a big week for BeagleBoard.org. The next generation BeagleBone has been teased with a <a href="http://beagleboard.org/unzipped" target="_blank">page open for registering interest</a>. Matt Richardson created a <a href="http://youtu.be/6NMURuUTdtk" target="_blank">teaser video</a> and I <a href="https://plus.google.com/102344295024422039483/posts/6Z4mixQGRcH" target="_blank">showed off the board at ELC</a>&nbsp;connected to an Motorola Lapdock to act as a monitor, keyboard, mouse and power supply. Victor Meyerson was also letting people know about the next-generation BeagleBone and provided BeagleWall, Motorola Lapdock and other demonstrations at <a href="http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale11x/sponsor/beagle-board" target="_blank">SCaLE 11x</a>&nbsp;where he was selected as the "<a href="http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/blog/envelope-please" target="_blank">Most passionate .org booth!</a>"</div>
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Here's Matt's video about the upcoming BeagleBone:</div>
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Here are some pictures that Victor took at SCaLE showing the BeagleBoard.org booth with BeagleWall and Motorola Lapdock demos. The second picture shows a USB touchscreen connected to a BeagleBone using upstream kernel drivers for both the display (displaylink) and touch (e2i) portions as well as Xorg drivers provided by xf86-video-fbdev. Thanks again Victor (calculus on <a href="http://beagleboard.org/chat" target="_blank">#beagle</a>)!</div>
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Now is a great time for BeagleBoard.org and a great time to get involved. I am looking for more contributors to:<br />
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<li>the mainline kernel effort with patches being staged at <a href="http://github.com/beagleboard/kernel">http://github.com/beagleboard/kernel</a>,</li>
<li>support for the mainline kernel for doing physical computing in JavaScript at <a href="http://github.com/jadonk/bonescript">http://github.com/jadonk/bonescript</a>,</li>
<li>improvements to the distro used to make the boards useful out-of-the-box at <a href="http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/building-angstrom">http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/building-angstrom</a> and</li>
<li>support in any of Linux distribution or other operating systems.</li>
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Join us at <a href="http://beagleboard.org/discuss">http://beagleboard.org/discuss</a> and get involved today! I'll be posting requests for contributions to our Google Summer of Code ideas page soon.<br />
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<b>Update</b>: I corrected the blog post to say "most passionate" not "favorite" and added the <a href="http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/blog/envelope-please" target="_blank">link</a> provided by Russ Dill.</div>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:28:47 UTC2012-11-13-beaglebone-and-linux-seeking-cure-tohttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2012-11-13-beaglebone-and-linux-seeking-cure-to/
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BeagleBone and Linux seeking cure to hardware black magic
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<p><a href="http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/embedded-linux-conference-europe" target="_blank">Embedded Linux Conference Europe (ELC-E) 2012</a> wrapped up last week in Barcelona. By far, the most popular embedded platform of choice for demonstrations was <a href="http://beagleboard.org/bone" target="_blank">BeagleBone</a>. Here are four examples that include links to the slides taken from the <a href="http://elinux.org/ELCE_Europe_2012_Presentations" target="_blank">eLinux wiki ELC-E presentation page</a>. Videos of the presentations should be available from <a href="http://free-electrons.com/" target="_blank">Free Electrons</a> soon.</p>
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Matt Ranostay opened up the presentations with&nbsp;"<a href="http://elinux.org/images/7/73/Beaglebone_Telemetry-_E-ELC_2012.pdf" target="_blank">Beaglebone: The Perfect Telemetry Platform?</a>"&nbsp;where he explored various telemetry applications such as weather stations, radiation monitors, earthquake detection mesh networks, home security systems and entropy pool generation. He discussed sharing data with tools like <a href="https://cosm.com/" target="_blank">COSM</a> and the hardware and software he developed for his own Geiger Cape plug-in board.
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Alan Ott of Signal 11 Software followed up with an excellent overview of "<a href="http://elinux.org/images/7/71/Wireless_Networking_with_IEEE_802.15.4_and_6LoWPAN.pdf" target="_blank">Wireless Networking with IEEE 802.15.4 and 6LoWPAN</a>". Alan discussed the power consumption of various wireless communications technologies, security and much more, including what is supported in Linux. Alan wrapped up with a demo using BeagleBone and an ultrasonic range finder. <a href="https://plus.google.com/101339419642360856354/posts/52ZSWk48WnE" target="_blank">Dave Anders snapped a picture of the Altoids-tin encased demo</a>.
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-59An20mWBh4/UKJsxYNrjxI/AAAAAAAACdE/r77DxslZROg/s1600/6502-demoscene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="289" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-59An20mWBh4/UKJsxYNrjxI/AAAAAAAACdE/r77DxslZROg/s320/6502-demoscene.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Matt Porter of Texas Instruments stepped away from sensors and controls bringing back the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64_demos" target="_blank">Commodore 64 demoscene</a> with "<a href="http://elinux.org/images/a/ac/What%27s_Old_Is_New-_A_6502-based_Remote_Processor.pdf" target="_blank">What's Old Is New: A 6502-based Remote Processor</a>". While this might seem like a bit of a throw-back, many modern issues and solutions were explored to give us this taste of the past, including the Linux remoteproc/virtio interfaces to remote processors, the AM335x PRUSS processor that is extremely adept at bit-banging and the Fritzing design tool. &nbsp;<a href="https://plus.google.com/108244279740379322507/posts/GdokN2PWoyh" target="_blank">Matt has also shared a picture of his wiring handy-work</a>.<br />
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Finally, Koen Kooi of CircuitCo presented on one of the fundamental BeagleBone challenges, "<a href="http://elinux.org/images/f/f2/Supporting_200_Different_Expansionboards_The_Broken_Promise_of_Devicetree.pdf" target="_blank">Supporting 200 Different Expansionboards: The Broken Promise of Devicetree</a>". If you frequent <a href="http://beagleboard.org/chat" target="_blank">#beagle</a>, you probably already know that Koen isn't easy to please and so the title shouldn't be much of a surprise. You might then be surprised to note on the first slide where "broken" has been scratched out! We certainly aren't there yet, but the device tree maintainers and AM335x kernel developers are starting to address the unique opportunities around BeagleBone cape expansion boards in the mainline Linux kernel, making a reality out of the dream of supporting hundreds of boards with a single kernel distributed ahead of the add-ons!<br />
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The continued enthusiasm of the embedded Linux community is just one element of what makes BeagleBoard.org successful, but it probably makes me happier than any other. With many of these developers moving the state of the Linux kernel ahead and even looking at sharing their hardware ideas in the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/CapeContest" target="_blank">BeagleBone Cape Plug-in Board Design Contest</a>, I see a bright future where the <a href="http://video.linux.com/videos/how-linux-is-built" target="_blank">largest collaborative software project of all time</a>&nbsp;fully embraces the hardware and maker communities such that we can build a world where individuals and even children can reproduce electronics and computers down to the circuit level, not simply build on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_magic_(programming)" target="_blank">black magic</a>.<br />
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:27:01 UTC2012-03-31-problems-with-google-groupshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2012-03-31-problems-with-google-groups/
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Problems with Google (Groups)
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What is up with Google? &nbsp;We have hundreds of messages waiting moderation on the BeagleBoard Google Group, but the tool no longer enables message moderation---and absolutely no communications from Google. &nbsp;Have they simply bitten off more than they can chew? &nbsp;Are they trying to take too much control? &nbsp;Either way, I'm shopping for a new mailing list solution for BeagleBoard.org and, sorry, 99% of your suggestions aren't useful. &nbsp;We need low-setup costs, low/free hosting, long-term archival, excellent search tools and results in various engines, quality spam controls, easy-to-use moderation tools, forum-like thread organization and "top-pinning", digest and individual e-mails with threading and many more features for which Google Groups has barely been passable at this point.<br />
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Any thoughts on why this has happened and if Google will be a valid partner in the future?
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:25:05 UTC2011-09-06-beagleboard-on-amp-hour-and-at-eschttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2011-09-06-beagleboard-on-amp-hour-and-at-esc/
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BeagleBoard on The Amp Hour and at ESC Boston
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This week, I went on <a href="http://www.theamphour.com/">the Amp Hour</a> with Chris, Dave and Jeff.&nbsp; We spoke about a lot of things BeagleBoard related, including the upcoming next revision of the BeagleBoard.<br />
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Also, I wanted to remind everyone that there will be new <a href="http://esc.eetimes.com/boston/buildyourown">hands-on training at ESC Boston</a> this month and full-conference attendees will get a free BeagleBoard-xM, TinCanTools Beacon Board and TI MSP430 Chronos watch.<br />
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Lastly, I'm still on the look-out for a new primary host for the BeagleCast podcast.&nbsp; I will be recording another episode next week with Khasim Syed Mohammed regarding the Android Rowboat project (hopefully), but I'm looking for someone who can volunteer to organize and record/publish the shows on a regular basis.&nbsp; The audio recording must be of higher quality than we've done in the past.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:23:30 UTC2011-07-29-beagleboard-turns-30http://beagleboard.org/blog/2011-07-29-beagleboard-turns-30/
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BeagleBoard turns 3.0!
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oun5MXXled8/TjODiQkcnlI/AAAAAAAAA7M/p_StQVtao6k/s1600/beagleboard_bday_header3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="76" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oun5MXXled8/TjODiQkcnlI/AAAAAAAAA7M/p_StQVtao6k/s320/beagleboard_bday_header3.gif" width="320" /></a></div>Three years ago this week, <a href="http://dkc1.digikey.com/us/en/mkt/Press/Beagle_Board.html">Digi-Key announced the BeagleBoard</a>.&nbsp; Since then, BeagleBoard-xM was launched and numerous other <a href="http://beagleboard.org/buy">distributors have also signed up to deliver the BeagleBoard and BeagleBoard-xM all around the world</a>.&nbsp; <br />
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Linux is turning 20 years old this year and <a href="http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/196-zonker/472766-its-official-linux-30-released-">Linus has released version 3.0</a>.&nbsp; You can <a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git;a=commit;h=02f8c6aee8df3cdc935e9bdd4f2d020306035dbe">try 3.0 out </a>on the BeagleBoard or BeagleBoard-xM prior to rev C and it should work for you pretty well.&nbsp;<a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git;a=commit;h=5fe8b4c19dc24e3bb873daf9e96a2439a83bbd79"> Support for xM rev C</a> was merged after the 3.0 release for inclusion in 3.1.&nbsp; If you'd like to pull a patch set that gives you power management, 1GHz support and some other features not yet placed into the mainline yet, you can check out the <a href="http://git.angstrom-distribution.org/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/meta-texasinstruments/tree/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-3.0">patch set in the meta-texasinstruments OE repository</a>.&nbsp; Koen also has also released <a href="https://groups.google.com/d/topic/beagleboard/N7zIEYQCpKI/discussion">a set of pre-build binaries and modules using these kernel patches</a> if you want to try out a fairly full-featured 3.0 kernel build for the BeagleBoard/BeagleBoard-xM.<br />
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I haven't tried it out yet, but the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/project/linaro-android/">Linaro 11.06 Android evaluation build</a> also includes a 3.0 kernel for your BeagleBoard-xM.<br />
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Happy Beagle 3.0!!!!
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:17:47 UTC2011-05-10-beaglecast-2011-05-06-talking-arm-withhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2011-05-10-beaglecast-2011-05-06-talking-arm-with/
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<a href='http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast_20110506.mp3'>BeagleCast 2011-05-06: Talking ARM with Greg K-H</a>
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Today we interview Greg Kroah-Hartman and your hosts are Jason Kridner and Jeffery Osier-Mixon. Gerald will be back in two weeks.<br />
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To provide questions or suggestions:<br />
<ul><li>Call +1-713-234-0535 or</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/bcsuggest">visit the BeagleCast suggestions form</a></li>
</ul>Links to the recordings<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast_20110506.mp3">BeagleCast-20110325.mp3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast_20110506.ogg">BeagleCast-20110325.ogg</a></li>
</ul>Links to show topics<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Jadon/status/66554029123186688">Some in stock @ Digi-Key this week!</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Make-Linux-Software-300ms-boot-demod/?kc=rss">A 300ms BeagleBoard boot?</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/nmenon/uomapfs">Using git submodule and busybox to track mainline development</a></li>
<li><a href="http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.beagleboard.general/14237">Announcing the Level One eXpansion (LOX) Board</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://twitter.com/Jadon/statuses/60484968652095488">BeagleBoard at Embedded Linux Conference (CATCAN, Gumstix Stagecoach, SuperJumbo, Avnet, and WLAN hacking)</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/community/elc.htm">Always Innovating talk at the 2011 Embedded Linux Conference</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/koenkooi/5621041789/%20">Sandia cluster of 49 OMAP3s</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/438478/rss">TI introduces OpenLink</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/ChaoticClamoring/%7E3/DptfC7uezlY/processing-and-processing-js-on.html">Processing and Processing-JS on the BeagleBoard under Angstrom</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qME7_Eza54">BeagleBoard based oscilloscope using JavaScript and Processing.JS</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://icanbuild.it/embedded/arduino-ide-and-upload-with-avrdude-to-trainerboard-avrisp2/">Arduino IDE and upload with avrdude to Trainerboard (AVRISP2)</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://icanbuild.it/embedded/processing-on-beagleboard-xm/%20">Processing on Beagleboard xM</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://dominion.thruhere.net/koen/cms/making-processing-arduino-ide-replicaorg-work-on-arm">Making Processing/Arduino IDE/ReplicaorG work on ARM</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://android.serverbox.ch/?p=247">Android Oscilloscope on the Beagleboard xM using Rowboat</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
</ul>Upcoming events<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://makerfaire.com/bayarea/2011/">Maker Faire Bay Area, May 21-22, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://esc.eetimes.com/chicago/">ESC Chicago, June 6-8, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.beagleboard.general/14057">Stompbox Design Summer Workshop at Stanford University, July 18-July 22, 2011</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
</ul>The Greg K-H interview is roughly the last 15 minutes.<br />
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:16:23 UTC2011-03-30-indiana-linuxfest-and-catcan-quadpodhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2011-03-30-indiana-linuxfest-and-catcan-quadpod/
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I was at <a href="http://www.indianalinux.org/">Indiana Linuxfest</a> this weekend. A couple of BeagleBoard-xMs were raffled off in support of the conference and it seemed a lot of people were interested. I gave a brief talk about the BeagleBoard project, Mark Yoder from Rose-Hulman and his students gave hands-on training to those interested in the Hackerspace Village and we had a BeagleBoard.org table for part of Saturday.<br />
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On Friday before I left for the show, I got a package from <a href="http://www.catcan.com.tw/">CATCAN in Taiwan</a> containing two BeagleBoard-based robots and not much else; certainly nothing else I understood. I left the hexpod at home to make sure it wasn't damaged and took the quadpod with me. Sitting at the table, a group gathered and we figured out what we thought was the right way to connect the battery. The first thing we noticed was this ominous shrill after applying power. As we sat nervously wondering what was going to happen when we applied power, one person sitting at the <a href="http://lhspodcast.info/">Linux in the Ham Shack</a> table noted a resemblance of the bot to the <a href="http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Metal_spider">evil metal spiders in Dr. Who</a>.<br />
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We decided that the shrill was likely the fans in the servo motors. You can block it out after a while, but it is loud and frightening. There was some concern that this meant that the servos were under strain, especially given that the motors were all moving themselves in addition to the legs, but I'm pretty sure we ruled that out and it really is the fans.<br />
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Knowing from the CATCAN and <a href="http://www.beagleboard.tw/">BeagleBoard.tw</a> websites that this bot was running Android, a random group of us sitting around the table decided to hook up a serial port and tried to figure out what made the bot move. Being Android without any additional GNU utilities in the file system, the shell can be a bit frustrating. We couldn't hit backspace or perform tab completion. However, obvious commands, like 'ls', 'cd' and 'cat' are there so we could go about our exploring.<br />
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One of the first files we found was a log in /data/dontpanic. We found that quite reassuring. Eventually we found /system/etc/init.hexapod.sh and the fact that it pointed to executing /data/test-long-time-hexapod. Sure enough, running that executable sent our bot back through its motions. Running it from the shell gave us a printout of 13 different numerical values--the same number of motors on the bot. Eventually, I'll need to figure out how to recharge this bot--unless I have somehow underestimated its capabilities. I'm still a bit away from figuring out how to give it my own directions, but I think I have a start now--thanks to the attendees of Indiana Linuxfest!<br />
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It wasn't all games on the show floor, I also enjoyed a few of the talks. I especially enjoyed the presentation on Open Hardware by <a href="http://twitter.com/morgellon">Joshua Burton</a>. I am anxious to figure out what I can do with a Bug or BeagleBoard and the realtime sensor data aggregator <a href="http://www.pachube.com/">Panchube</a>. Joshua also introduced me to the work of <a href="http://people.csail.mit.edu/brooks/index.html">Rodney Brooks</a> who, among other interesting things, contributes to <a href="http://edge.org/">Edge</a>.<br />
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I also picked up a bit I didn't realize in the <a href="http://www.canonical.com/engineering-services/oem-services/why-ubuntu/products">Ubuntu</a> for ARM presentation by <a href="https://launchpad.net/%7Edavidm">David Mandella</a>. One thing that surprised me is that the 10.04 release for ARM isn't considered "LTS" or long term supported. David predicts that the 12.04 is likely to be the first LTS release for ARM. With the Linaro work on the device tree and lots of OMAP/BeagleBoard patches being accepted into the mainline Linux kernel, I expect that to be a stellar release for the BeagleBoard users out there.<br />
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The presentations were recorded, so hopefully I'll be able to provide an update with the recorded presentations.<br />
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Update (3/30/2011): Sog Yang gave me this link to find a charger: <a href="http://www.rc-airplanes-simplified.com/rc-battery-chargers.html">http://www.rc-airplanes-simplified.com/rc-battery-chargers.html</a>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:15:13 UTC2011-03-28-beaglecast-2011-03-25-super-jumbohttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2011-03-28-beaglecast-2011-03-25-super-jumbo/
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<a href='http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast_20110325.mp3'>BeagleCast 2011-03-25: Super Jumbo</a>
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The theme of today's show is "Super Jumbo" and your hosts are Jason Kridner, Gerald Coley and Jeffery Osier-Mixon.<br />
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To provide questions or suggestions:<br />
<ul><li>Call +1-713-234-0535 or</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/bcsuggest">visit the BeagleCast suggestions form</a></li>
</ul>Links to the recordings<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast_20110325.mp3">BeagleCast-20110325.mp3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast_20110325.ogg">BeagleCast-20110325.ogg</a></li>
</ul>Headline news<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.prlog.org/11372827-mpc-data-announces-windows-embedded-compact-7-board-support-package-availability.html">Windows Compact 7</a> </li>
<li>Two new Distributors in China -- <a href="http://www.chipsee.com/beagleboard-xm.html">ChipSee </a> -- <a href="http://www.catcan.com.tw/">CATCAN </a></li>
</ul>From the RSS feed <br />
<ul><li><a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/433347/rss">FFmpeg fork becomes libav </a></li>
<li><a href="http://nakkaya.com/2011/03/15/clojure-on-the-beagleboard/">Clojure on The Beagleboard </a>-- What is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_%28computer_science%29">closure</a> vs. what is <a href="http://clojure.org/">Clojure</a>?</li>
<li><a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/433490/rss">The 2.6.38 kernel is out </a></li>
<li><a href="http://bradfordembedded.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-is-clfs.html">What Is CLFS?</a> - <a href="http://bradfordembedded.blogspot.com/2011/03/file-system-check.html">File System - Check! </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Open-Source-at-CeBIT-2011-1206993.html">OpenEmbedded at CeBIT 2011</a> -- Should we still be excited about <a href="http://www.slashgear.com/the-importance-of-ces-and-what-to-expect-in-2011-30121801/">CES</a> and <a href="http://www.digitalmissive.com/on-ces-vs-cebit-and-keynote-spin-syndrome/">CeBIT</a>? </li>
<li><a href="http://kinecthacks.net/robot-kinect-and-even-ipad-auto-chasing-turtle/">Face chasing BeagleBoard-based robot using a Kinect</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://maxgalemin.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-build-qt-framework-472-and.html">How to build QT Framework 4.7.2 and OpenCV 2.2 for Beagleboard-xM</a> -- <a href="http://maxgalemin.blogspot.com/2011/03/please-find-sample-program-in-c-for.html">How to build sample program for capturing image from camera (OpenCV and Qt) </a></li>
<li><a href="http://beagleboardxm.org/blog/2011/03/22/progress-spi-is-working-on-the-beagleboard-xm/">SPI with Trainer-xM </a></li>
<li><a href="http://blog.sola-dolphin-1.net/archives/3626037.html">Running CyanogenMod on BeagleBoard</a> -- What is <a href="http://www.cyanogenmod.com/">CyanogenMod</a>? -- What is <a href="http://arowboat.org/">Rowboat</a>?</li>
<li><a href="http://www.igep-platform.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=128:news-igepv2-goes-open-hardware&amp;catid=3:newsflash">NEWS IGEPv2 goes Open Hardware</a> </li>
<li>Open Hardware Summit date announced for 2011? -- <span style="text-decoration: underline;">L</span><a href="http://www.openhardwaresummit.org/2011/03/22/oshw-logo-public-vote/">ooking for votes on a logo</a></li>
<li><a href="http://adventuresinsilicon.blogspot.com/2011/03/beagleboard-power-usage-current-draw.html">Beagleboard: Power usage (current draw) for certain scenarios </a></li>
</ul>Upcoming events <br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.indianalinux.org/cms/schedule2011">Indiana Linuxfest</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://news.karpe.net.in/opensource-com-boflug-mumbai-meeting-26th-mar">OpenSource COM BOF/LUG Mumbai Meeting, 26th March 2011</a> </li>
</ul>Community activity<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2011">GSoC Update</a> -- BeagleBoard.org not a mentoring organization this year -- Still looking for mentors to volunteer to mentor in other projects -- Considering a smaller scale BeagleBoard Summer of Code </li>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/d/topic/beagleboard/BuOI4Hf-Ewo/discussion">Always Innovating Announcement...Super Jumbo Beagle Buffet!</a> </li>
</ul>Upcoming <br />
<ul><li>Khasim Syed Mohammed will be on next week to discuss the Android Rowboat project</li>
</ul>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:13:43 UTC2011-03-15-beaglecast-2011-03-14-beagleboard-xmhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2011-03-15-beaglecast-2011-03-14-beagleboard-xm/
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<a href='http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast_20110314.mp3'>BeagleCast 2011-03-14: BeagleBoard-xM rev C</a>
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Today's hosts are Jason Kridner, Gerald Coley and Jeffery Osier-Mixon.&nbsp; Below are the show note links. <br />
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Links to the recordings<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast_20110314.mp3">BeagleCast-20110314.mp3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast_20110314.ogg">BeagleCast-20110314.ogg</a></li>
</ul>To provide questions or suggestions:<br />
<ul><li>Call +1-713-234-0535 or</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/bcsuggest">visit the BeagleCast suggestions form</a></li>
</ul>From the RSS feed <br />
<ul><li><a href="http://ormz.blogspot.com/2011/03/beagle-xm-portable-juice.html">Running a BeagleBoard off of Batteries</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/koenkooi/5508523287/in/pool-705532@N22/">BeagleBoard cases</a> with a <a href="http://www.makerbot.com/">MakerBot</a> on <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3559">Thingiverse</a></li>
<li><a href="http://tigraphics.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-sgx-graphics-driver-release-4030002.html">New SGX Graphics Driver Release 4.03.00.02 for Linux now available!</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li><a href="http://maxgalemin.blogspot.com/2011/03/dvi-d-to-vga-converter-for-beagleboard.html">DVI-D to VGA converter for BeagleBoard-xM</a> and issue to be fixed with the current <a href="http://www.beagleboardtoys.com/shop/article_BB-vgab/Beagle-Vga-board.html">BeagleBoardToys VGA adapter</a> when using a BeagleBoard-xM &nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://whatnicklife.blogspot.com/2011/03/kinect-beagleboard-xm.html">Kinect + BeagleBoard-xM (now need GLES)</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://www.ece.utexas.edu/aboutece/news_detail.cfm?id=310">Leverett and Wasson Win Texas Instruments Beagle Board Design Challenge</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://bradfordembedded.blogspot.com/2011/03/toolchain-check-kernel-check.html">Toolchain, Check! Kernel, Check!</a> - <a href="http://trac.cross-lfs.org/">Cross Linux From Scratch</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>Twitter badge on the blog page<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/search/%23beagleboard">Lots of interesting #BeagleBoard tweets</a></li>
<li><a href="http://beagleboard.org/twitter">Follow the #BeagleBoard RSS feed news items on Twitter</a>&nbsp; </li>
</ul>Upcoming events<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://twitter.com/jadon">Tweet @Jadon</a> for free BeagleBoard hands-on training on March 26th at <a href="http://www.indianalinux.org/">Indiana Linuxfest</a> going on March 25-27</li>
<li><a href="http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/collaboration-summit">Linux Collaboration Summit</a> on April 6-8 </li>
<li><a href="http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/embedded-linux-conference">Embedded Linux Conference</a> on April 11-13</li>
<li><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_120190418">Maker Faire</a><a href="http://makerfaire.com/bayarea/2011/"> Bay Area</a> on May 21-22</li>
</ul>BeagleBoard-xM Rev C HW and SW Update<br />
<ul><li><a href="https://groups.google.com/d/topic/beagleboard/O-d7xU_rCKY/discussion">New release candidate from Angstrom</a></li>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/d/msg/beagleboard/O-d7xU_rCKY/-vJxZCso0EYJ">FAT vs. ext2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/d/topic/beagleboard/u2A51YpBJcs/discussion">boot.scr vs uEnv.txt </a>change is <a href="https://groups.google.com/d/msg/beagleboard/O-d7xU_rCKY/A5v6YYnjRMEJ">not welcomed by all</a> </li>
<li>Why won't old <a href="http://gitorious.org/x-loader/x-loader/commit/2efa178acd56d83c86210b5934895cfb9ea62125">MLO</a> and <a href="http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/patch/85303/">u-boot</a> work with xM rev C?</li>
</ul>Hot Topics on the BeagleBoard Google Group<br />
<ul><li><a href="https://groups.google.com/d/topic/beagleboard/H71feZSr9BQ/discussion">Mark Yoder's ECE497 class with some students using the Kinect</a></li>
<li><a href="http://beagleboard.org/gsoc">Collecting Google Summer of Code project ideas</a> such as the <a href="https://groups.google.com/d/topic/beagleboard/uzcSmgSo0sE/discussion">car PC project</a></li>
</ul>Future topics and guests<br />
<br />
The theme music for BeagleCast was created and provided by Alasdair Drake.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:12:00 UTC2011-03-08-beaglecast-2011-03-07-inaugural-podcasthttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2011-03-08-beaglecast-2011-03-07-inaugural-podcast/
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<a href='http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast-20110307.mp3'>BeagleCast 2011-03-07: The inaugural podcast</a>
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Today's hosts are Jason Kridner, Gerald Coley and Jeffery Osier-Mixon.&nbsp; Below are the show note links. <br />
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Links to the recordings<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast-20110307.mp3">BeagleCast-20110307.mp3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/cast/beaglecast-20110307.ogg">BeagleCast-20110307.ogg</a></li>
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To provide questions or suggestions:<br />
<ul><li>Call +1-713-234-0535 or</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/bcsuggest">visit the BeagleCast suggestions form</a></li>
</ul><br />
Jeff and Yocto&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />
<ul><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_River_Gorge">Jeff at a conference near the Columbia river gorge</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://jefro.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/yocto-community-manager/">Jeff now the Yocto community manager</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://yoctoproject.org/">Yocto includes Poky build tools, is multiplatform and has a BeagleBoard BSP</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://www.yoctoproject.org/blogs/jeff/2011/03/2/yocto-project-aligns-technology-openembedded-gains-partners">Yocto gets many new partners</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/03/02/linux-foundations-yocto-project-to-join-forces-with-openembedded-to-advance-embedded-linux/">What does it mean to join with OpenEmbedded?</a>&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitBake">OE and Gentoo share roots</a></li>
<li><a href="http://arago-project.org/">Arago Project</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li><a href="http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/openembedded-core/2011-February/000008.html">Koen working on the oe-core</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li><a href="http://elinux.org/">eLinux wiki summary of embedded Linux projects</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://www.beagleboard.org/irclogs/index.php?date=2010-12-15#T14:13:21">Wikis "are like bread" (good when fresh)</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://beagleboard.org/gsoc">BeagleBoard.org and Google Summer of Code</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
<li><a href="http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/embedded-linux-conference">oe-core status update and Yocto birds of a feather at ELC week of April 10</a></li>
</ul><br />
SD card discussion&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=corp_su_/?node=13786331">Amazon selling consumer friendly packaging</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li><a href="http://www.sakoman.com/OMAP/microsd-card-perfomance-test-results.html">SD card performance shootout needed to measure controller performance</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li>
</ul><br />
BeagleBoard and electronics hobbyists of all ages<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://makerfaire.com/">Maker Faire</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.forrestmims.com/">Getting Started in Electronics</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToWsF3HcQUU">Capacitors explode</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.555contest.com/">555 timer contest</a></li>
</ul>&nbsp;News from the BeagleBoard.org RSS feed and elsewhere<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://blog.hangerhead.com/2011/03/nodejs-based-cloud9-javascript-ide.html">Cloud9 IDE on BeagleBoard</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tincantools.com/product.php?productid=16151&amp;cat=0&amp;page=1&amp;featured">BeagleBoard Trainer-xM</a></li>
<li><a href="http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/patch/85292/">Contributing upstream patches, such as uEnv.txt patch in u-boot</a></li>
<li><a href="http://nishanthmenon.blogspot.com/2010/10/tired-of-ttysx-and-ttyox.html">The move from ttyS2 to ttyO2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-omap/list/">linux-omap kernel patchwork</a></li>
<li><a href="http://status.linaro.org/">Linaro status</a></li>
<li><a href="http://lwn.net/">Linux news</a></li>
<li><a href="http://beagleboard.blogspot.com/2011/02/using-perl-to-read-linux-events.html">Linux input events in Perl</a></li>
<li><a href="https://xgoat.com/wp/2011/02/27/student-robotics-at-bristol-ignite/">Student Robotics has a nice BeagleBoard based robot design and real student roots</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li><a href="http://tenettech.com/blogspot/?p=707">xM now available from Tenet Technetronics</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/koenkooi/5490234860/">Koen made BeagleBoard coasters with his MakerBot</a></li>
<li><a href="http://tigraphics.blogspot.com/2011/03/adobe-flash101-with-dsp-h264-for.html">Adobe Flash10.1 with DSP H264</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.iheartrobotics.com/2011/03/pixhawk-gumstix-camera.html">PIXHAWK Gumstix Camera</a></li>
<li><a href="http://armdevices.net/2011/03/03/beagleboard-xm-1ghz-arm-cortex-a8-6-angstrom-linux-desktops-synchronized/">BeagleWall with interview of Roger Monk</a></li>
</ul><br />
The theme music for BeagleCast was created and provided by Alasdair Drake.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:10:30 UTC2011-02-28-using-perl-to-read-linux-eventshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2011-02-28-using-perl-to-read-linux-events/
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Using Perl to read Linux events
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For a simple demo that played a movie on a BeagleBoard, I wanted to add a simple mechanism to start the movie over again if the USER button was pressed.<br /><br />To read a Linux input event, it is as simple as just performing a read. The only trick to this for me, however, is that I wanted the read to timeout. This was resolved by using the Perl alarm() function can catching the signal within an eval().<br /><br />I've uploaded <a href="https://gist.github.com/848252">a gist of my example play_movie.pl</a> script:<br /><br />
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<script src="https://gist.github.com/jadonk/848252.js"></script>
<noscript><pre>#!/usr/bin/perl<br />$ENV{'DISPLAY'} = ":0.0";<br />system("xhost +");<br />#system("totem --quit");<br />#system("nice -n -5 totem --fullscreen /home/root/playlist.xml &");<br />$cmdline_start = "nice -n -5 mplayer /home/root/*.mov &";<br />system($cmdline_start);<br /><br />open(FILE, "/dev/input/event0");<br />binmode(FILE);<br />while(1)<br /> {<br /> eval<br /> {<br /> local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die("Alarm!\n") };<br /> alarm(60*28); # 28 minutes<br /> read(FILE, $buf, 16);<br /> alarm(0);<br /> };<br /> if($@)<br /> {<br /> printf("Restarting due to timeout\n");<br /> #system("totem --next");<br /> system("killall -15 mplayer");<br /> sleep(1);<br /> system("killall -9 mplayer");<br /> sleep(1);<br /> system($cmdline_start);<br /> }<br /> else<br /> {<br /> ($time1, $time2, $type, $code, $value) = unpack("iissi", $buf);<br /> printf("%f %05d %05d 0x%08x\n", $time1+$time2/1000000, $type, $code, $value);<br /> if($code == 276 && $value == 1) # USER button pressed<br /> {<br /> printf("Restarting due to USER button press\n");<br /> #system("totem --next");<br /> system("killall -15 mplayer");<br /> sleep(1);<br /> system("killall -9 mplayer");<br /> sleep(1);<br /> system($cmdline_start);<br /> }<br /> }<br /> }</pre></noscript>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 17:08:21 UTC2011-01-27-vote-for-winner-in-tiut-beagleboardhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2011-01-27-vote-for-winner-in-tiut-beagleboard/
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Vote for the winner in the TI/UT BeagleBoard Design Challenge
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<table bgcolor="#000000" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" style="width: 575px;"><tbody><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"><br /><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr bgcolor="#d14800"> <td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="27%"><a href="http://www.ti.com/beagleboardchallenge" name="vote now"><img alt="Vote Now!" border="0" height="130" src="http://www.ti.com/webemail/2010/email/DSP-BeagleBoard-Challenge/graphics/vote-header.jpg" width="156" padding="0" /></a></td> <td align="left" bgcolor="#0f2467" style="color: white; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold;" width="73%"><br />BeagleBoard UT Design Challenge!</td> </tr><tr> <td colspan="2"><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 130%;"><tbody><tr valign="top"> <td colspan="2" height="20"></td> </tr><tr valign="top"> <td colspan="2"><br /><br /><b>TI and UT Austin students step up to the challenge</b> </td> </tr><tr valign="top"> <td width="55%"><br />What is the most inventive thing that can be done on the BeagleBoard today? Students from the University of Texas at Austin have stepped up to the challenge to find new and unique ways to push the envelope, inspired <br />by the BeagleBoard to break barriers of innovation.<br /><br /><br />Which BeagleBoard-based design would you like to own? Vote for your favorite today! <br /><br /><br /><br />Voting takes place between January 27th &#8211; February 10th. To cast your vote, please view projects at <a href="http://www.ti.com/beagleboardchallenge" name="view link" style="color: #ea272a;">ti.com/beagleboardchallenge</a>. </td> <td valign="top" width="45%"><a href="http://www.ti.com/beagleboardchallenge" name="graphic link"><img align="right" alt="BeagleBoard Design Challenge. Vote Today!" border="0" height="246" src="http://www.ti.com/webemail/2010/email/DSP-BeagleBoard-Challenge/graphics/Beagle-Board-Contest-Flyer-2.jpg" width="250" /></a> </td> </tr><tr valign="top"> <td colspan="2"><br /><b>Think you can do better?</b> Visit <a href="http://beagleboard.org/" name="visit link" style="color: #ea272a;">beagleboard.org</a> to begin your own development.</td> </tr></tbody></table></td> </tr></tbody></table></td> </tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width: 575px;"><tbody><tr> <td><span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></td> </tr></tbody></table>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 16:51:04 UTC2010-12-18-looking-for-college-intern-for-thishttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2010-12-18-looking-for-college-intern-for-this/
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Looking for a college intern for this summer
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In the past, for job postings and other commercial solicitations around the BeagleBoard I've recommended utilizing the <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1474607">BeagleBoard LinkedIn group</a> because I never went deeper than the page that said that the job board was free.&nbsp; As I tried to list my own opening, I found that it was going to cost me almost $200.&nbsp; Given that, I welcome anyone contacting me with information on cheaper ways to do job listings and other commercial solicitations related to BeagleBoard activities.<br />
<br />
What I'm inquiring about here is to fill an ARM microprocessor community development team internship position at Texas Instruments for summer 2011.&nbsp; You can find other job opportunities at TI with <a href="https://hrprod.ext.ti.com/psc/psprodSSS/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Action=A&amp;SiteId=2">TI's CareerBuilder site</a> (try keyword "Linux") or at <a href="http://careers.ti.com/">http://careers.ti.com</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Job Description</b> <br />
Serve the needs of open source software developers utilizing TI ARM-based microprocessors by advocating within TI, consolidating and communicating valuable information internally and externally, and solving technical and organizational challenges including patches to fix open source software bugs or functional gaps in software like u-boot, Linux, applications within GNU/Linux distributions and tools to build software systems. Producing written, recorded and interactive presentation materials to train technical and semi-technical audiences on utilization and extension of open hardware platforms, such as the BeagleBoard, is required. A public reputation in open source software development is highly desirable. Some travel required. On-line communication skills are a must. This position is potentially very flexible in hours and location as long as mastery of communications with the core team can be demonstrated. Other potential benefits include flexibility in software projects and resources of perhaps the largest volume ARM microprocessor supplier in the industry.<br />
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<b>Minimal Skills Required</b><br />
<ul><li>On-line communications</li>
<li>Conflict resolution</li>
<li>C and C++ programming</li>
<li>Shell scripting</li>
<li>Demonstrated knowledge in Linux, operating system and build system concepts</li>
<li>Software revision control management</li>
<li>Oral and written communications in English (additional languages are desirable, especially Japanese, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Hindi)</li>
</ul><br />
<b>Company Description</b><br />
Texas Instruments (TI) is a global analog and digital semiconductor IC design and manufacturing company. In addition to analog technologies, digital signal processing (DSP) and microcontroller (MCU) semiconductors, TI designs and manufactures semiconductor solutions for analog and digital embedded and application processing.<br />
<br />
<b>Where to send your information</b><br />
Please send all TI ARM microprocessor community development job related queries to me with "JOB" in the subject heading and to my jkridner account on beagleboard.org.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 16:50:03 UTC2010-09-09-byoes-at-esc-bostonhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2010-09-09-byoes-at-esc-boston/
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BYOES at ESC Boston
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<tr> <td style="background-color: #525252; color: white; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold;"><div style="margin: 10px;">Last chance to Register for BeagleBoard Workshop, <span style="color: #fff36f;">Sept 20-21 at ESC Boston</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td><div style="margin: 20px 10px;"><div style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 120%;">The two-day embedding training at ESC Boston, with BeagleBoard.org and Microsoft, is rapidly approaching. Don&#8217;t miss your chance to learn how to develop with Windows Embedded Compact 7 on the BeagleBoard-xM, a community-driven single-board computer. </div><table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="border: 1px solid rgb(255, 0, 0); width: 530px;"><tbody>
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<tr> <td valign="top" width="29"><a href="http://www.ti.com/escbst-ereg" name="registeration graphic link"><img alt="Register Now" border="0" height="29" src="http://www.ti.com/corp/graphics/email/icon-arrow.gif" width="29" /></a></td> <td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;</td> <td valign="top" width="60"><a href="http://www.ti.com/escbst-ereg" name="registeration text link" style="color: #ea272a; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #ea272a;"><b>Register Now</b></span></a></td> <td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td> <td valign="top"><h3 style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0pt;">September 20-21 at ESC Boston</h3><div style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Sessions are FREE to all paid conference attendees. BeagleBoards can be purchased for $150 during registration. </div></td> </tr>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 120%;">Participants will have access to BeagleBoard-xM and an SD card that contains the distributions for the classes as well as demos, tools and more. </div><br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">To learn more about <a href="http://www.ti.com/escbst-ebblp" name="BB-XM learn more" style="color: #ea272a;">BeagleBoard-XM</a> please visit us online.</div><br />
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<a href="http://www.ti.com/escbst-ebblp"><img alt="BeagleBoard - Visit www.beagleboard.org" border="0" height="172" src="http://www.ti.com/webemail/2010/email/DSP-ESC-Boston-Email-A/graphics/beagleboard.jpg" width="190" /></a><br />
<br />
<div align="left" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://www.ti.com/escbst-ebblp" style="color: #ea272a;"><span style="color: #ea272a;">Buy a BeagleBoard-xM Kit for only $150*</span></a></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" style="padding-top: 5px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9px;">*Supply is limited.</span></div></td> </tr>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 16:48:29 UTC2010-05-24-announcement-from-ti-of-beagleboard-xmhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2010-05-24-announcement-from-ti-of-beagleboard-xm/
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Announcement from TI of BeagleBoard-xM hands-on training at ESC Chicago
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</div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #ea272a; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 19.5pt;">Get hands-on training with the new BeagleBoard</span></b><b><span style="color: red; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 19.5pt;">-xM</span></b><b><span style="color: #ea272a; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 19.5pt;">, June 7-8 at ESC Chicago <o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #ea272a; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 22.5pt;"><img alt="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/a0321898/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" height="15" src="http://www.ti.com/corp/graphics/spacer.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025" width="20" /><o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 0in;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Texas Instruments" height="44" src="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/graphics/clip_image002.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1026" width="545" /><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
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<tr> <td colspan="2" style="padding: 15pt 0in 7.5pt 0.75pt;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.ti.com/beagleboard-elp"><img align="right" alt="New BeagleBoard XM" border="0" height="111" src="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/graphics/clip_image003.jpg" title="" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_2" width="147" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7191973772501539847" name="beagleborad_XM"></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 9pt;">Attend ESC Chicago, June 7 &amp; 8, and get hands-on interactive training with the new <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7191973772501539847" name="top_link"></a><a href="http://www.ti.com/beagleboard-elp"><span style="color: #ea272a;">BeagleBoard</span><span style="color: red;">-x</span><span style="color: #ea272a;">M</span></a> and talk with industry experts as they give you all of the hardware, boot, and kernel basics required to start development immediately. Attendees will learn how to engage with the BeagleBoard developer community, as well as how to obtain and utilize the source code projects most fundamental to the boards functionality. <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td colspan="2" style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0.75pt;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 9pt;">For those actively developing there will be targeted classes available addressing: <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0.75pt; width: 69%;" valign="top" width="69%"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 9pt;">Streaming media<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 9pt;">Graphical user interfaces<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">Embedded Linux</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 9pt;">Android development for non-handset designs<o:p></o:p></span></li>
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<tr> <td style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 13, 13); padding: 6pt 15pt 7.5pt;"><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7191973772501539847" name="register_now_link"></a><a href="http://www.ti.com/esc-chicago-elp"><b><span style="color: white; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Register Now for ESC Chicago</span></b></a><b><span style="color: white; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></b><b><span style="color: white; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 6pt;"><br />
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</span></b><b><span style="color: white; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 9pt;">Sessions and kits are FREE to registered BeagleBoard workshop attendees. Arrive early, as space and board availability is limited. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> </tr>
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<tr> <td colspan="2" style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0.75pt;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 9pt;">Come and experiment with the BeagleBoard-xM to see what new ideas it sparks in you. <br />
<br />
For more information or to order a BeagleBoard, please visit <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7191973772501539847" name="more_info"></a><a href="http://www.ti.com/beagleboard-elp"><span style="color: #ea272a;">www.beagleboard.org</span></a><br />
Click <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7191973772501539847" name="click_here_to_register"></a><a href="http://www.ti.com/esc-chicago-elp"><span style="color: #ea272a;">here</span></a> to register for BeagleBoard classes at ESC Chicago. <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
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<tr> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 7.5pt;">SHARE THIS EMAIL<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7191973772501539847#SPSNCLICK"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Facebook" border="0" height="16" src="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/graphics/clip_image004.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1027" width="16" /></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7191973772501539847#SPSNCLICK"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Twitter" border="0" height="16" src="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/graphics/clip_image005.GIF" v:shapes="_x0000_i1028" width="16" /></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7191973772501539847#SPSNCLICK"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><img alt="LinkedIn" border="0" height="16" src="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/graphics/clip_image006.GIF" v:shapes="_x0000_i1029" width="16" /></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7191973772501539847#SPSNCLICK"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Delicious" border="0" height="16" src="http://beagle.s3.amazonaws.com/graphics/clip_image007.GIF" v:shapes="_x0000_i1030" width="16" /></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
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<tr><td style="padding: 0in; width: 440.25pt;" width="587"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 11.25pt 0in 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 7.5pt;"> The platform bar is a trademark of Texas Instruments. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 16:47:16 UTC2010-05-12-six-beagleboardorg-gsoc-projectshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2010-05-12-six-beagleboardorg-gsoc-projects/
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Six BeagleBoard.org GSoC projects launching
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BeagleBoard.org was approved to mentor six (6) students during this year's Google as they execute their projects.&nbsp; The students, projects, and mentors are:<br />
<ul><li>Christopher Friedt's project is NEON Support for FFTW.&nbsp; He is being mentored by Mans Rullgard.&nbsp; I'm proposing Philip Balister as a co-mentor. Christopher attends C.A.U. Kiel, Germany.&nbsp; You can follow his work at http://perpetual-notion.blogspot.com/.</li>
<li>Tobias Arrskog's project is Optimizing rendering of XBMC and aiding the port to ARM.&nbsp; He is being mentored by Mike Zucchi.&nbsp; I'm proposing Mans Rullgard and Søren Steen Christensen to assist as co-mentors. Tobias attends Lunds University, LTH. Sweden.</li>
<li>Yaman Umuroglu's project is RPC-like POSIX wrappers for DSPEasy. Yaman is mentored by Katie Roberts-Hoffman.&nbsp; I'm proposing Laine Walker-Avina and Frank Walzer to assist as co-mentors.&nbsp; Yaman attends Middle East Technical University in Turkey.</li>
<li>Varun Jewalikar's project is a High level interface to exploit the Pulse Width Modulation abilities of the BeagleBoard.&nbsp; Varun is being mentored by Søren Steen Christensen.&nbsp; I'm proposing Cristina Murillo to assist as a co-mentor, but I'll be looking to see if we can add a co-mentor in India.&nbsp; Varun attends Delhi College of Engineering in India.</li>
<li> Nicolas Boichat's project is a USB sniffer on Beagle Board.&nbsp; Nicolas is being mentored by Hunyue Yau.&nbsp; I'm proposing Laine Walker-Avina and Frans Meulenbroeks to assist as co-mentors.&nbsp; Nicolas is finishing his Masters at EPFL (Switzerland).</li>
<li>Pramod Poudel's project is OpenCV DSP Acceleration.&nbsp; Pramod is being mentored by Leonardo Estevez.&nbsp; I'm proposing Katie Roberts-Hoffman and Luis Gustavo Lira to assist as co-mentors.&nbsp; Pramod attends University of Texas at Tyler, Texas, USA. </li>
</ul>Thanks all for each of the roughly 60 proposals submitted to BeagleBoard.org!!&nbsp; I hope that you'll continue to participate and will consider submitting a proposal again next year.&nbsp; There's been a bit of a lag in the <a href="http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/contest#Sponsored_Projects_Program_.28Contest_.233.29_projects">weekly sponsored projects</a>. Boards should be in the GSoC students' hands this week, so I hope that you register your project there to still have the opportunity to get a board and execute your idea.<br />
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From the <a href="http://socghop.appspot.com/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2010/timeline">GSoC timeline</a>, we are currently in the Community Bonding Period and very close to launching our projects:<br />
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<tr><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 22px;"></span><th style="cursor: text; padding: 2px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://googlesummerofcode.blogspot.com/2007/04/so-what-is-this-community-bonding-all.html" style="color: #0000cc;" target="_blank">Community Bonding Period</a>:</th> <td style="color: black; cursor: text; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 8px; padding: 2px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;"><h3>Students get to know mentors, read documentation, get up to speed to begin working on their projects.</h3></td></tr>
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<tr><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 22px;"></span><th style="cursor: text; padding: 2px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;">May 24:</th> <td style="color: black; cursor: text; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 8px; padding: 2px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;"><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em;"> <br />
<h3>Students begin coding for their GSoC projects;</h3></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em;"> <br />
<h3>Google begins issuing initial student payments provided tax forms are on file and students are in good standing with their communities.</h3></li>
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Every student should be in contact with his/her mentor and co-mentors on a regular basis.&nbsp; This Monday, May 17th will be an all-hands meeting on <a href="http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=beagle">#beagle</a> at <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingdetails.html?year=2010&amp;month=5&amp;day=17&amp;hour=14&amp;min=0&amp;sec=0&amp;p1=179&amp;p2=136&amp;p3=195&amp;p4=771">14:00 UTC / 10AM EDT</a>.<br />
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P.S. Mentors registered with GSoC, please contact me if I don't have the roles defined adequately--I don't mind adding additional co-mentors.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 16:45:37 UTC2010-04-07-ubuntu-image-writer-simplifies-gettinghttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2010-04-07-ubuntu-image-writer-simplifies-getting/
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Ubuntu image writer simplifies getting start using the BeagleBoard
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If you happen to have a 2GB SD card and you are thinking about trying the Angstrom demo that Koen has created but are scared of all the partitioning, formatting, and copying instructions you are finding on the web, then I hope I'm about to share some joy with you.<br /><br />Ubuntu now distributes a tool for writing images onto USB sticks and SD cards for the purpose of evaluating Ubuntu. For those of us who use Linux on a daily basis, it serves largely the same purpose as the 'dd' command, but it runs in Windows and Mac OS X as well and has a GUI to help prompt you along the way. You can get the tool from:<br /><br /><a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromImgFiles">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromImgFiles</a><br /><br />Additionally, Koen, a maintainer for the Angstrom Distribution, has produced an image under his demo directory at:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/sd-images/2gb/">http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/sd-images/2gb/</a><br /><br />You'll still need a tool to uncompress the image (which is <a href="http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/bzip2.htm">Bzip2 compressed</a>), but the rest should be mostly self-explanatory. Hopefully other distributions will follow and more SD images will be available soon!
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 16:44:19 UTC2010-03-18-beagleboardorg-in-google-summer-of-codehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2010-03-18-beagleboardorg-in-google-summer-of-code/
http://beagleboard.org/blog/2010-03-18-beagleboardorg-in-google-summer-of-code/<h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'>
BeagleBoard.org in Google Summer of Code!
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BeagleBoard.org has been <a href="http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/program/accepted_orgs/google/gsoc2010">listed as one of the accepted mentoring organizations</a> for the <a href="http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/program/home/google/gsoc2010">Google Summer of Code 2010</a>!!!<br /><br />
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vBRRR0BQyz0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br />Over 365 organizations applied and we are among the 150 lucky Free and Open Source projects that were accepted. About 1,000 students are expected to have their project proposals accepted and Google will be providing US$5,000 to every student and US$500 to the mentoring organization for every successfully completed project. Texas Instruments will be providing BeagleBoard hardware through the BeagleBoard.org Sponsored Projects Program. TinCanTools has offered to provide Zippy boards to students using those in their projects.<br /><br />Now is the time for mentors (people who would like to assist the students), to sign up on the GSoC2010 site and to update the <a href="http://tinyurl.com/bbgsoc">ideas list</a>. It is also the time for students to get familiar with the BeagleBoard.org project and community before applications begin being accepted on March 29, so be sure to hang out on the <a href="http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=beagle,gsoc">#gsoc and #beagle channels on irc.freenode.net</a>.<br /><br />Spread the good news and bring on the projects!!!
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 16:41:58 UTC2009-12-14-several-omapbeagle-patches-landhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-12-14-several-omapbeagle-patches-land/
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Several OMAP/Beagle patches land upstream for Linux 2.6.33
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I'm feeling pretty happy and excited today looking at the patches Linus Torvalds has recently merged into the Linux kernel mainline, such as a huge patch set from Tony Lindgren[<a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=9c3936cb694ffd559c80dc3eb75b61f769a39259">1</a>]. I'm particularly happy to see that DSS2 is there[<a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=blob;f=Documentation/arm/OMAP/DSS">2</a>], so there shouldn't be any more confusion about what display driver to use on OMAP. The USB EHCI (host port) driver also finally got merged[<a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=54ab2b02ef6a454b4cca969f546d0dd43fec7308">5</a>]. I also see a large number of power management patches being included.<br /><br />Baseline support for several OMAP3 systems has also been included, including the Always Innovating Touch Book[<a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=7a079cab4632265fc87ee483daf57879d5dd87f2">3</a>], AM3517 EVM[<a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=c625327e2f5a506a89563e14ed837c82fa61548f">6</a>], IGEPv2[<a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=58e111621d402d41cb0cabae7c532d6194b7d943">7</a>], CM-T35[<a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=2886d128d8ff83af88b9cbe6dbf7f0d2bbee8d76">8</a>], OMAP3630 Zoom-3[<a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=5f35fbe8b8a05743fb9686e33194a126cd4273f6">9</a>] and some updates for the OpenPandora[<a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=8d88f7f70cca3fa6aabac287fccd40cebacb92d1">4</a>]. Many of the OMAP3 development boards[<a href="http://wiki.omap.com/index.php?title=OMAP3_Boards">10</a>] and open development platforms are still not listed or easy to find in the Kconfig descriptions or board instance files.<br /><br />A large number of bug fixes are also included.<br /><br />It typically takes Linus 2-3 weeks to put together the first release candidate. After that, it typically takes 2-3 months to hammer out the bugs enough to make the the release. I'm looking forward to seeing great testing and contributions from the OMAP and BeagleBoard communities following the release of Linux 2.6.33-rc1!!<br /><br />[1] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=9c3936cb694ffd559c80dc3eb75b61f769a39259<br />[2] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=blob;f=Documentation/arm/OMAP/DSS<br />[3] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=7a079cab4632265fc87ee483daf57879d5dd87f2<br />[4] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=8d88f7f70cca3fa6aabac287fccd40cebacb92d1<br />[5] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=54ab2b02ef6a454b4cca969f546d0dd43fec7308<br />[6] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=c625327e2f5a506a89563e14ed837c82fa61548f<br />[7] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=58e111621d402d41cb0cabae7c532d6194b7d943<br />[8] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=2886d128d8ff83af88b9cbe6dbf7f0d2bbee8d76<br />[9] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=5f35fbe8b8a05743fb9686e33194a126cd4273f6<br />[10] http://wiki.omap.com/index.php?title=OMAP3_Boards
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 16:39:07 UTC2009-11-13-videos-of-intro-to-nov-17th-communityhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-11-13-videos-of-intro-to-nov-17th-community/
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Videos of intro to Nov 17th community lightning talks and all the Aug 27th talks
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<br /><br />See the full list of movies in the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=33AA6D26FCFE143F">YouTube playlist</a>. They include OMAP3-based open platforms like the Always Innovating Touch Book and the Oregon State ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) OSWALD, software frameworks running on OMAP3 like Gnome, Ubuntu, GStreamer, and QNX Neutrino, projects for open software defined radio (SDR), hardware projects to expand Beagle with LCDs and Ethernet, the DM355-based open camera project LeopardBoard.org, and new applications like the PicoFlamingo presentation system.<br /><br />To see the slides or join the Nov 17th event, visit <a href="http://tinyurl.com/etechlightning">the wiki page</a>. Enjoy!
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 16:37:35 UTC2009-10-20-neon-traininghttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-10-20-neon-training/
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NEON training
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One of the most important aspects of the BeagleBoard.org community is that I'm mostly irrelevant. This means that I'm not a bottleneck to the important things that happen in the community. Unfortunately, it also means that I'm also not always in-the-loop on great events coming up that utilize the BeagleBoard and getting the word out to everyone on-time. Even so, I imagine a lot of you are going to the ARM Techcon3 and can make use of this nice litte bit of hands-on training using the BeagleBoard that I learned about from Ken Havens:<br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style=";font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB">Turning the NEON Light On (Hands-on Workshop)</span></strong><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><br /></span><em><span style=";font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB">Wednesday, Oct 21 3:00pm - 4:30pm</span></em><i><span style=";font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><br /><em><span>TechMart: San Jose room</span></em><br /></span></i><span style=";font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><br /><em><span>Friday, Oct 23 10:00am - 11:30am</span></em><i><br /><em><span>TechMart: San Jose room</span></em></i></span><span style="font-size:9pt;" lang="EN-GB"> </span><span style="font-size:9pt;" lang="EN-GB"></span></p> <span style=";font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB">This seminar will be a hands-on introduction to NEON (the SIMD extension on Cortex-A processors) using Beagleboards running Ubuntu Linux. Attendees should be software engineers with some prior experience of armcc or gcc with an interest in low-level software optimizations.</span>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 16:34:09 UTC2009-10-11-beagleboard-in-india-costs-3500-rupeeshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-10-11-beagleboard-in-india-costs-3500-rupees/
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Beagleboard in India costs 3500 Rupees less ...
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It is great to know that IDA systems will be shipping beagleboards in India for just Rs 8999 http://www.idasystems.net/beagle_board<br /><br />In the past beagleboards were available for 12500 Rs, thanks for Gerald Coley, CircuitCo and IDA to work together in getting the cost down for India.<br /><br />IDA systems is also announced as official distributor for Beagleboards http://beagleboard.org/buy. So any one in India can get local support for beagleboards and shipping should be fast with no lead times like before.<br /><br />Good Luck to IDA and beagle board India users.<br /><br />Regards,<br />Khasim<br /><br />http://hawkboard.wordpress.com/<br />http://hawkboard.org/<br /><br /><br /><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 16:33:03 UTC2009-09-08-beagle-clinic-india-august-event-updatehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-09-08-beagle-clinic-india-august-event-update/
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Beagle Clinic India : August Event - an update
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Beagle Clinic India was held at Texas Instruments campus on 29th Aug 2009. More details about participants and the technology discussed please click the link below,<br /><a href="http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/bangalore_user_meet#Beagle_Clinic_India">http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/bangalore_user_meet#Beagle_Clinic_India</a><br />Few action items that were taken during the meet with probable solutions are given below :<br />- USB HOST hangs when multiple devices are connected &#8211; OE kernel<br />need to post this query to linux-omap-vger kernel mailing list and get the support<br />- SGX training online &#8211; NON angstrom distribution<br />Girish is helping on generating this training content should be available by early next week.<br />- LCD board for Beagle<br />No support yet.<br />- Operating frequency for 600Mhz<br />This is possible with PM brach, echo 5 > /sys/power/vdd1_lock<br />- Arrange one hands on Gstreamer and SGX sessions<br />In next beagle clinic we can take up one of these.<br />- A wiki page for QT to get it working on beagleboard<br />Need to find a voluteer for this.<br />I have taken other inputs on cleaning up the code.google.com/p/beagleboard, sorry due to multiple things was not able to do this, it should be done by end of next week.<br />Other topics discussed were<br />Leopard: to support mmc boot support in u-boot, will have to check this out.<br />Devkit (with answers) :<br />- USB Host not working : will be resolved by embest in next two months.<br />- Audio and board hang : embest will test can get back<br />- WinCE images not working: Give more details to embest <br />- Support : embest is considering supporting the team on beagle mailing list<br />- Camera module: Not available for customers<br />I will be in Pune for trainings on OMAP L , DM355 leopard and beagleboard on Sept 24th and Sept 25th, I am not sure if I can co-ordinate the beagle clinic this month also we long weekend holidays coming up next month, please suggest an alternat date for the same.<br />Next event :<br />- Hands on training with SGX modules<br />- Show case OMAP L 138 platform (ia)<br />- Get some one on call to discuss USB issues.<br />- If possible get gstreamer hands on training.<br />Kindly note this event is mainly meant to fix and solve issues we are facing with beagleboard, leopard board and other community platforms.<br /><br />Thanks to attendees, lets keep this going to make things easier with beagle board.<br /><br />Khasim<br /><a href="mailto:khasim@beagleboard.org">khasim@beagleboard.org</a>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:57:04 UTC2009-09-03-beagle-board-at-esc-bostonhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-09-03-beagle-board-at-esc-boston/
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Beagle Board at ESC Boston
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The Beagle Board is back at ESC Boston! There will be a user's group meeting following the training sessions. There is a two-hour hands-on introduction and 3 hands-on classes featuring Android, DSP-accelerated audio/video, and use of the 3D graphics accelerator. Classes are free for ESC attendees with a $99 setup fee to get access to a lab station if you bring your own Beagle Board and $299 to get a new Beagle Board with the class.<br /><br />For more information, visit <a href="http://beagleboard.org/esc">http://beagleboard.org/esc</a>.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:55:59 UTC2009-08-18-on-line-community-lightning-talks-andhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-08-18-on-line-community-lightning-talks-and/
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On-line Community Lightning Talks and Hands-on Training
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To complement its $99 world-wide <a href="http://www.ti.com/techdays2009">Tech Days 2009</a> program, TI is putting on a new free, on-line event called <a href="http://www.ti.com/etechdays">eTech Days (http://www.ti.com/etechdays)</a>. It is a full day of interactivity and problem-solving on Thursday, August 27 2009.<br /><br />As just one part of this event, open source community developers are invited to present on their on-going activities and drive discussion on the <a href="http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=beagle">#beagle IRC channel on Freenode</a>. For more information or to register a talking slot, visit the wiki information page at: <a href="http://wiki.omap.com/index.php/ETechDays_Community_Lightning_Talks">http://wiki.omap.com/index.php/ETechDays_Community_Lightning_Talks</a>.<br /><br />Also, if you haven't already heard, the Beagle Board is back at ESC Boston! Sign up for hands-on training today at: <a href="http://esc-boston.techinsightsevents.com/ti_beagleboard">http://esc-boston.techinsightsevents.com/ti_beagleboard</a>.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:55:02 UTC2009-08-05-picoflamingo-wins-zoom-ii-for-work-inhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-08-05-picoflamingo-wins-zoom-ii-for-work-in/
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PicoFlamingo wins a Zoom-II for work in the BeagleBoard.org Sponsored Projects Program
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Futuristic and innovative ideas pay off in the form of a sweet device! Congrats to the <a href="http://papermint-designs.com/community/?q=node/26">PicoFlamingo team</a> for thinking outside of the box with their <a href="http://beagleboard.org/project/picoFlamingo/">BeagleBoard-based portable presentation system</a> and winning a monthly prize in the Sponsored Projects Program for their excellent progress. They have been awarded the <a href="http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/wtbu/wtbugencontent.tsp?templateId=6123&amp;navigationId=12013&amp;contentId=53575&amp;DCMP=wtbu_zoom&amp;HQS=Other+PR+zoom2">OMAP 3 based Zoom II Mobile Development Platform</a> to help pioneer more of their inventions and can&#8217;t wait to see what they do to improve their <a href="http://papermint-designs.com/community/?q=node/24">Pink Egg</a>.<br /><br />Don&#8217;t miss out on the opportunity to win a BeagleBoard and/or one of the monthly prizes &#8211; visit <a href="http://beagleboard.org/contest">beagleboard.org/contest</a> to learn how to submit ideas and keep the mailing list and your RSS feed up-to-date with your progress.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:53:02 UTC2009-06-11-successful-beagle-clinic-program-inhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-06-11-successful-beagle-clinic-program-in/
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A successful Beagle Clinic program in India -May 2009
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<div>Hello all,</div><div></div><br /><div>I am really sorry to update this after a while, was totally lost in my new lost cost board that is coming up with OMAP L 13x (ARM9 and Floating point DSP). </div><div></div><br /><div>Beagle Clinic: A monthly Beagleboard consultation forum, an open event organized last Saturday of every month. </div><div></div><br /><div>I was very happy to receive a very good set of beagle users across south India and a good set of faculty members from MSRAS. </div><div></div><br /><div>Though I wanted to start on the problems and fix the same, it took us a while to train the new beagle board joinees, we concluded the session with beagle board bring up, rev c validation, OMAP3 TRM understanding and action plans.</div><br /><div></div><div>I took a log of action items that we have to address,</div><ol><li>Give info on DVI-Touch module with drivers - this looks expensive to go for in India.</li><li>Start workout sessions - take a problem and fix it</li><li>No another user group mailing list for India, mail to beagle discussion list with subject [BeagleClinic] </li><li>Discuss topics for the training on mailing list</li><li>Android specific training</li><li>Android event / training will be a paid event for future investment on boards and trainings.</li><li>Work with Cranes to enable - Buy board on the spot and accessories in next event.</li><li>Identify some distributors for beagle clones and buddies </li></ol><p>Status of action items:</p><p>1 to 4 :- will be taken care.</p><p>5:- I want to schedule google android event in July as June will be difficult to manage, I think July 18th 2009 will be good.</p><p>6:- We have to fix a price for this event.</p><p>7:- Cranes is still short of boards, will still work with them, atleast they will be able to get accessories for the spot.</p><p>8:- I found embest boards bit useful and more complete for India market, <a title="http://www.armkits.com/Product/devkit8000.asp" href="http://www.armkits.com/Product/devkit8000.asp">http://www.armkits.com/Product/devkit8000.asp</a>, I had initial talks with our China counterparts, I am also looking for Distributors in India who can purchase these boards in volume to reduce the shipping cost. We also have option to manufacture beagle boards in India, but again need to find a investor and distributor. If you happen to know one then let me know.</p><p>Frangline Jose and Abhishek Jacob have volunteered to train us on DSP Link, CE and Codec integration, I will have to schedule this activity, will happen in July 2nd or 3rd week.</p><p>The attendees and other details of the event are below. Thanks for all your support. Let's ensure that we fix problems and move forward with beagleboard.org.</p><p>There are lot of free board programs, I request students and hobbyists in India to leverage the<br /><a href="http://beagleboard.org/contest">http://beagleboard.org/contest</a> </p><p>Event details:</p><p>Details for May event<br />Date : May 30, 2009 (Saturday)<br />Time : 10.00 AM &#8211; 4.00 PM<br />Venue: MS Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies,<br />Gnanagangothri Campus, New B.E.L. Road, M.S.R. Nagar<br />Bangalore- 560 054<br /></p><br /><p>Attendees<br />Radha Krishna. S.<br />Raghavendran. N.<br />Prasad Rao<br />Vishal Bhoj [attended]<br />Amit Pundir [attended]<br />Subbu (irc: kozak)[attended]<br />Bharath S V<br />Madan Y C<br />Manjunath K R<br />Manjunath R V<br />Anand Shankar Kahaly [attended]<br />HarishKumar.V<br />Arun C.Giriyapur<br />Chandrakant N. Shet<br />Jomcy Pappachen<br />Rajan B<br />Sriram.N<br />Arindam Ghosh<br />S R Santhosh<br />R.Lakshmikanth<br />Vasanth Kumar B<br />Prasanth Unnikrishnan<br /></p><br /><p>Volunteers<br />Syed Mohammed Khasim (<a href="mailto:khasim@beagleboard.org">khasim@beagleboard.org</a>, Viral Sachde ( viral at sachde dot com irc: virals ) , Jayaramudu, GirishBisto, Abhishek Jacob </p><p>In picture below, Yogesh Marathe - explaining DSP link usage to audience.</p><p><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nzfUrkNb-8Q/SjKk7hcvvnI/AAAAAAAAACQ/7mJ8iRmKd_o/s1600-h/DSC01828.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346517050140376690" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nzfUrkNb-8Q/SjKk7hcvvnI/AAAAAAAAACQ/7mJ8iRmKd_o/s320/DSC01828.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /></p><p>Thanks.</p><p>Khasim.</p>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:51:34 UTC2009-04-09-beagleboard-design-contest-indiahttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-04-09-beagleboard-design-contest-india/
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Beagleboard Design Contest INDIA Edition
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Here is an exciting opportunity for students and professionals in India to showcase there talent on creating innovating applications with beagleboard.<br /><br />ARM, Texas Instruments and Cranes have jointly come forward with this initiative called beagle board design contest with exciting prizes and recognitions like certificates, speaker slots, presentations, etc.<br /><br />More information on this contest can be found here<br /><br />http://www.cranessoftware.com/services/training/beagledesigncontest.html<br /><br />Feel free to mail khasim@beagleboard.org for any queries or clarifications for this contest.<br /><br />For any discussions please use beagle IRC and discussion list.<br /><br />Good Luck<br /><br />Khasim
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:50:17 UTC2009-03-31-pair-of-edn-innovation-winnershttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-03-31-pair-of-edn-innovation-winners/
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A pair of EDN Innovation winners
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0E5eddtdV7U/SdG3lVBnLBI/AAAAAAAAABs/d2ruwPTzdQI/s1600-h/1238473984367.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0E5eddtdV7U/SdG3lVBnLBI/AAAAAAAAABs/d2ruwPTzdQI/s320/1238473984367.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319234486828215314" border="0" /></a>The "OMAP35x Application Processor" and the "Beagle Board Embedded Linux Development Board" were both winners of tonight's <a href="http://www.edn.com/article/CA6632377.html">EDN Innovation 2008 awards</a> for their respective categories of "Microprocessors" and "Software/Embedded Tools". It was a great evening, with several great products recognized and it was nice to have our products among those. It was a great way to follow up a successful day of <a href="http://beagleboard.org/esc">hands-on classes at the Embedded Systems Conference on the BeagleBoard</a>. Too bad Boris wasn't there to accept the honors himself. :)
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:48:45 UTC2009-03-26-rev-c-available-for-silicon-valleyhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-03-26-rev-c-available-for-silicon-valley/
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Rev C available for Silicon Valley BeagleBoard User's Group meeting
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_0E5eddtdV7U/ScvyLLQPl-I/AAAAAAAAABk/LHGxhRyILvU/s1600-h/beagle_revc_hand_shadow.PNG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 217px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_0E5eddtdV7U/ScvyLLQPl-I/AAAAAAAAABk/LHGxhRyILvU/s320/beagle_revc_hand_shadow.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317610058854406114" border="0" /></a>Rev C2 is available now! Same part number at Digi-Key and the same price!<br /><ul><li>Twice the RAM (256MB, instead of 128MB)</li><li>High-speed-only dedicated-host USB port with standard A-type connector</li><li>LCD expansion header</li></ul>All of the Rev B units sold out, so all new orders will be filled with Rev C units which are already in stock. The timing worked out perfectly with the last Rev B units being sold the day after the Rev C units arrived.<br /><br />All of this is just-in-time for our Silicon Valley BeagleBoard Users' Group meeting being held immediately following the Embedded Systems Conference. We'll be enjoying a few beers and discussing the BeagleBoard.org sponsored project program. The meeting will be held in room B1 in the convention center right after the show closes at <b>4 PM, Thursday, April 2nd</b>. <a href="https://www.cmpevents.com/ESCw09/a.asp?option=C&amp;V=11&amp;SessID=9406">Join us in the ESC Theater an hour earlier for a chance to win a BeagleBoard and a Tektronix scope</a>. Hope to see you there!
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:47:38 UTC2009-03-21-esc-build-your-own-embedded-systemhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-03-21-esc-build-your-own-embedded-system/
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ESC Build Your Own Embedded System online registration deadline 3/25
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<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jadon/3003735904/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3139/3003735904_7b8796b879_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jadon/3003735904/">IMG_1038.CR2</a><br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jadon/">jadonk</a></span></div>ESC BYOES online registration closes on 3/25. Register & get a new Rev C for the Beagle Board labs covering Android, 3D UIs, DSP-accelerated GStreamer, adding Bluetooth, and more. Only $199 to add the BYOES sessions to your ESC registration or just $595 for a special Beagle Board Days Pass.<br /><br />See http://esc-sv09.techinsightsevents.com/byoes for details and to register.<br clear="all" />
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:46:16 UTC2009-02-13-software-design-contest-2-in-3dhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2009-02-13-software-design-contest-2-in-3d/
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Software design contest #2 (in 3D)
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Congratulations again to <a href="http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6362979448.html">Antti Seppanen for his BeagleBot</a> and <a href="http://elinux.org/U-boot_musb_gadget_support">Diego Dompe for his support of usbtty in the Beagle u-boot</a> on winning Beagle Board Rev C boards in the last software design contest.<br /><br />We were a bit slow setting the dates for this contest with the hope of getting some entries with 3D graphics enabled. Koen, a frequent contributor to BeagleBoard.org and maintainer of the Angstrom Distribution that includes Beagle Board support, has given us a demo to show that this is now possible for community members. In his demonstration, he's running OGRE3D, an open source graphics engine, with Wiimote control and projection on his ceiling with the TI Pico Projector development kit.<br /><br /><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LDtUE5PIhV0&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LDtUE5PIhV0&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object><br /><br />As one of the contest judges, Koen isn't eligible for the contest, but you can build upon his work by utilizing the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/beagleboard/msg/5632ffbe822451ae">information provided on the Beagle mailing list for configuring the 3.00.00.06 SGX drivers that are now available from TI for download</a>.<br /><br />The contest details are at <a href="http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/contest">http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/contest</a>. To try to keep us on track of a contest per month, submissions must be complete, with all instructions and software, by Friday, February 27th. Good luck!
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:45:16 UTC2008-12-23-software-design-contest-1http://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-12-23-software-design-contest-1/
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Software design contest #1
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0E5eddtdV7U/SVFSFLC4IWI/AAAAAAAAAAU/KGlE9-GEn08/s1600-h/beagle_first_place.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 160px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0E5eddtdV7U/SVFSFLC4IWI/AAAAAAAAAAU/KGlE9-GEn08/s320/beagle_first_place.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283094086699983202" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Shall we wrap-up the year with a BeagleBoard software design contest? The prize will be a Rev C1 BeagleBoard with a working USB EHCI port a couple months before they are broadly available.<br /><br />Please don't be shy. I know there are a lot of interesting projects going on and you need to enter the contest to win!<br /><br />More information can be found via the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/beagleboard/msg/311429d33985f58f">announcement on the mailing list</a>. Reply if you have any questions. We are looking forward to your entries!<br /><br />Enter soon. The first give-away will be the first week in January!<br /><br /><small><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_ribbon3.svg">Blue ribbon acquired from WikiMedia.</a></small>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:44:01 UTC2008-11-04-crossing-1000-mailing-list-subscribershttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-11-04-crossing-1000-mailing-list-subscribers/
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Crossing 1,000 mailing list subscribers
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jadon/3003735904/in/pool-beagleboard"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 167px; height: 111px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3139/3003735904_7b8796b879.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Last week was a very busy one for Beagle Boarders.<br /><br />We had hundreds of people sign up for the 4 days of Beagle Board training at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston. Class attendance for several sessions were at capacity and many of the classes were hands-on, including hands-on classes on 3D user interface creation and . Those attendees are now able to refer to the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/demo/esc">course materials for the hands-on classes on-line</a> and all the people who signed up walked away from the event with Beagle Boards in hand. Many thanks to MontaVista, RidgeRun, Bill Gatliff, Special Computing, HY Research, Angstrom Distribution developers, and all of the others involved. It was an amazing event.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jadon/3003735696/in/pool-beagleboard/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 167px; height: 111px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3220/3003735696_fae838970c.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />We also had great demos on the show floor, including BSquare's wireless demo running on the OMAP35x EVM, CalSoft's Flash demo running on the Beagle Board, and the Gumstix Overo running Angstrom. I also got my first chance to play with a DLP Pico Projector, which drew a nice crowd at the booth.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jadon/3002900889/in/pool-beagleboard/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 167px; height: 250px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/3002900889_7cf775f53f.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Additionally, those of you who have been waiting on documentation for the power management device, the <a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tps65950.html">technical reference manual (TRM) for the TPS65950 is now available</a> on-line. This is a drop-in functionally equivalent replacement for the TWL4030 with some analog performance improvements, including to the on-chip USB PHY.<br /><br />Almost forgot to mention that I got an article published regarding use of <a href="http://www.dspdesignline.com/211200823">open source software in consumer electronics</a>. Beyond using open source software in consumer electronics, I really believe there is a future for products like the <a href="http://www.neurostechnology.com/">Neuros OSD</a> as people want more control and ownership over what their products can do.<br /><br />Lastly, at the time of this writing, we are now only 10 people away from having 1,000 mailing list subscribers. Interest is overwhelming and continuing to grow. Thanks for making the Beagle Board such a success so far and helping to set the course of where it goes from here!
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:42:20 UTC2008-09-11-beagle-at-ibchttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-09-11-beagle-at-ibc/
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Beagle at IBC
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_y7jVc0o1My8/SMlBFV4fnsI/AAAAAAAAABY/Py878YOYcC4/s1600-h/6d8a1add215a762de363eee4b73a008f.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_y7jVc0o1My8/SMlBFV4fnsI/AAAAAAAAABY/Py878YOYcC4/s320/6d8a1add215a762de363eee4b73a008f.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5244794801078902466" border="0" /></a><br />Lot's of activity going on around Beagle, but I've been lax on generating blog posts. In addition to the activity going on in preparation for <a href="http://www.cmp-egevents.com/web/escb/beagleboard">ESC Boston</a>, such as <a href="http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/sugar-running-%C3%A5ngstr%C3%B6m">getting Sugar running</a>, giving <a href="http://khasim.blogspot.com/2008/09/free-embedded-linux-training-for.html">free trainings in India</a>, and getting a <a href="http://beagleintern.blogspot.com/">new intern to watch the IRC logs</a>, we also have our very own Roger Monk and Koen Kooi at <a href="http://www.ibc.org">IBC</a> today. Stop by (IPTV zone IP322) if you want to take a look at the Beagle in action or simply hop on IRC and chat with them today while they are at the booth and logged into IRC using the Beagle board using nickname "beagle|ibc".
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:40:57 UTC2008-07-22-lugradio-live-2008http://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-07-22-lugradio-live-2008/
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LugRadio Live UK 2008
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<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/koenkooi/2692388640/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/2692388640_b82e5febdf_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><br /><span style="margin-top: 0px;font-size:0;" ><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/koenkooi/2692388640/">Lugradio live 2008</a><br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/koenkooi/">koenkooi</a></span></div>The BeagleBoard.org community last weekend (July 19/20) showcased the latest beagle developments and capabilities at the <a href="http://lugradio.org/live/UK2008/">LugRadio Live 08 Event in the UK</a>. Koen Kooi (Open Embedded) and Måns Rullgård (FFmpeg) teamed up to deliver some stunning NEON accelerated High Definition video demonstrations and the latest ARM Cortex-A8 OE built Angstrom Distribution. Other demos included High Definition 3D graphics acceleration leveraging Beagle's Imagination SGX core and some C64x+ DSP accelerated audio and video codecs. Lots of great interest at the show in the capabilities of a such a 'small but powerful platform', especially when enabled by such a creative and dynamic community.<br /><br />Koen also provided <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/koenkooi/tags/lugradiolive/">a handful of nice pictures from the event</a>.<br /><br />Edit (2008-07-29)--Linux Outlaws did an interview:<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/m9xVbntl-DY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/m9xVbntl-DY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:39:13 UTC2008-07-15-one-more-minor-apperancehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-07-15-one-more-minor-apperance/
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One more minor apperance...
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://barcamp.org/f/barcamp_houston-1.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://barcamp.org/f/barcamp_houston-1.png" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Beagle will also be making an afternoon appearance at <a href="http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/BarCampHouston3">BarCampHouston3</a>.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:37:48 UTC2008-07-11-trade-show-newshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-07-11-trade-show-news/
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Trade Show News
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Beagle-Board/36046586920"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://beagleboard.org/static/graphics/beagle_square.png" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The Beagle Board will making a number of appearances over the next few weeks. Our very own Khasim Syed Mohammed will be at <a href="http://osscamp.in/index.php/OSScamp_Bengaluru_Mobile_2008#Participate">OSScamp</a> July 19th in Bengaluru, India. In the UK, Koen Kooi and Måns Rullgård are looking to show off FFmpeg and Ångström at <a href="http://lugradio.org/live/UK2008/">LugRadio Live</a> on July 19-20.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Beagle-Board/36046586920">A BeagleBoard fan group has shown up on Facebook</a>. Currently, only the upcoming <a href="http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/">LinuxWorld Expo event</a> in San Francisco August 4-7 is listed, but it is possible to RSVP to express interest in the BeagleBoard meet-up. I'm expecting for details on the meet-up to be provided shortly. I look forward to meeting you there!
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:35:41 UTC2008-06-26-linuxtag-2008-winnershttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-06-26-linuxtag-2008-winners/
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LinuxTag 2008 winners
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jadon/2615864228/" title="BeagleBoardBox by jadonk, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3251/2615864228_2b9675c829.jpg" alt="BeagleBoardBox" width="500" height="333" /></a><br /><br />And the winners are...<br /><ol><li>Sebastian Reschke</li><li>Harald Krippel</li><li>Ramiro Polla</li><li>Kate Alhola</li><li>Kees Jongenburger</li><li>Eugen Dischke</li><li>Davor Ocelic</li><li>Robert Bohme</li><li>Holger Wirtz</li><li>Jan Luebbe</li><li>Robert Schuster</li><li>Florian Boor</li></ol>Each of the winners has now been contacted and we're in the process of shipping the boards. My apologies for each of you who applied and were not selected in the drawing. Perhaps, you can possibly take another shot at <a href="http://lugradio.org/live/UK2008/">LugRadio Live UK 2008</a> July 19-20 or at the soon-to-be-planned big BeagleBoard.org meet-up at <a href="http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/">LinuxWorld Expo 2008</a> August 4-7 in San Francisco.<br /><br />And, for those of you who attended our first meet-up at <a href="http://www.ti.com/tidc08">TIDC 2008</a> back in February, when we first started this mission, we haven't forgotten you! Feel free to express your desire for an early adopter board at 'revb-request' at beagleboard.org and that will let us know you aren't interested in waiting for the platform to mature any longer.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:27:01 UTC2008-05-30-little-thingshttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-05-30-little-things/
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The little things
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<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9Z4ZTovtFKk&amp;hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9Z4ZTovtFKk&amp;hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><p>It is the little things that make me happy sometimes, like Koen adding support for the Linux LED driver.</p><p>Several triggers are possible, such as accessing the NAND, MMC/SD, or just a regular heartbeat, as Koen has demonstrated. To list off the possible triggers for the LED driver:</p><pre>root@beagleboard:~# cat /sys/class/leds/beagleboard\:\:led0/trigger<br />none nand-disk [mmc0] heartbeat timer<br /></pre><p></p>The above shows the MMC/SD access trigger enabled. Koen selected that by issuing the following command:<br /><pre>root@beagleboard:/sys/class/leds/beagleboard::led0# echo mmc0 > trigger<br /></pre>Get started adding your own drivers today by starting with the existing code and the kernel git tree. See <a href="http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard#Code">http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard#Code</a> (Thanks Dirk!) for references. The patch was discussed on the IRC channel here: <a href="http://www.beagleboard.org/irclogs/index.php?date=2008-05-30#T12:04:27">http://www.beagleboard.org/irclogs/index.php?date=2008-05-30#T12:04:27</a>.<br /><p></p>Meanwhile, Sakoman and Khasim are continuing to to push ahead with the full NAND flash support. All these "little" activities really make me happy. :)
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:25:10 UTC2008-05-29-beagle-board-at-linuxtaghttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-05-29-beagle-board-at-linuxtag/
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Beagle Board at LinuxTag!
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_y7jVc0o1My8/SD7shd1ARVI/AAAAAAAAABM/ofA5rkHelQU/s1600-h/P1000546.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_y7jVc0o1My8/SD7shd1ARVI/AAAAAAAAABM/ofA5rkHelQU/s400/P1000546.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5205858278973654354" border="0" /></a><br />Texas Instruments is hosting the BeagleBoard.org booth at <a href="http://www.linuxtag.org/2008/">LinuxTag</a> 2008 on May 28-31. You will see Beagle board live demos and discuss open source topics at the booth - Hall 7.2a Stand 122. On Friday, May 30th, there is a two hour workshop about the open source project in workshop room 2 at noon. More information on the event can be found at <a href="http://www.linuxtag.org/2008/en/home/welcome.html">http://www.linuxtag.org/2008/en/home/welcome.html.</a>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:22:11 UTC2008-05-14-lugradio-live-usa-2008-continuedhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-05-14-lugradio-live-usa-2008-continued/
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LUGRadio Live USA 2008 (continued)
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<embed id="VideoPlayback" style="width: 400px; height: 326px;" flashvars="" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-7119681400071776468&amp;hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><br />Continuing from last <a href="http://beagleboard.blogspot.com/2008/04/lugradio-live-usa-2008.html">LUGRadio Live USA 2008 report</a>, the recorded video, "<a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7119681400071776468&amp;hl=en">The DSP is Open</a>", is now online and the <a href="http://forums.lugradio.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&amp;t=4094&amp;st=0&amp;sk=t&amp;sd=a&amp;start=15#p41549">links are shared on the LUGRadio Live forums</a>. I'm caught speaking about <a href="http://dspvillage.ti.com/">DSP</a>, <a href="http://opensource.ti.com/">Open Source + TI devices</a>, and the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/">Beagle Board</a>. The <a href="http://www.beagleboard.org/uploads/lugradio_20080411.PPT">slides are on-line here</a>, as they are a bit difficult to read on the video.
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:20:21 UTC2008-05-09-distros-for-beaglehttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-05-09-distros-for-beagle/
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Distros for Beagle
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://beagleboard.org/static/graphics/5e0946883882a895576ef8cee2312597.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://beagleboard.org/static/graphics/5e0946883882a895576ef8cee2312597.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /> Some may think of the Beagle Board as just another embedded eval board, but its capabilities lie much closer to those of a computer. And as a computer, Beagle needs an OS. Though we are already running Linux, and it&#8217;s fine, there&#8217;s still something missing. Beagle needs a distro. <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>On your PC you might use Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, or another distro out there, and Beagle needs one as well. Currently, Beagle is already running <a href="http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard#OpenEmbedded">Angstrom (OE) (thanks Koen!)</a>, but why not get involved early and help Beagle run <a href="http://mojo.handhelds.org/">Ubuntu ARM (Mojo)</a>, <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM">Fedora ARM</a>, <a href="http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-arm.xml">Gentoo ARM</a>, or even <a href="http://www.armedslack.org/">ARMedslack</a>?<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:17:55 UTC2008-05-07-beagle-patches-integrated-in-upstreamhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-05-07-beagle-patches-integrated-in-upstream/
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Beagle patches integrated in upstream OMAP community Linux kernel
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Thanks to Khasim Syed Mohammed, the recent <a href="http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#linux-omap">OMAP community</a> Linux kernel now contains basic patches for the Beagle board! For initial boot of Linux on Beagle you don't have to apply any additional patches, just download the <a href="http://source.mvista.com/git/?p=linux-omap-2.6.git;a=summary">community OMAP Linux kernel</a> using <a href="http://git.or.cz/">git</a>, do "make&nbsp;omap3_beagle_defconfig", and enjoy <a href="http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/wiki/BootingBeagleBoard">booting your new kernel on Beagle</a>.<br /><br />Khasim is just getting us started. Expect to see other community members contributing patches to provide additional functionality on the Beagle board soon.<br /><br /><a href="http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/wiki/BootingBeagleBoard" target="_blank"></a>
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</div>doug30 Jul 2013 15:15:36 UTC2008-04-04-source-released-for-beagle-boardhttp://beagleboard.org/blog/2008-04-04-source-released-for-beagle-board/
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Source released for the Beagle Board
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Khasim has provided us with the first Linux sources and binaries for the Beagle Board. You can find them on <a href="http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/wiki/BeagleSourceCode">the Beagle Board code.google.com page under BeagleSourceCode</a>. Feel free to stop by the IRC channel (#beagle on irc.freenode.net) or the <a href="http://beagleboard.org/discuss">discussion group</a> to learn more. Happy hacking!
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</div>jkridner.wordpress.com30 Jul 2013 15:11:40 UTC